The Yellow Brick Road
by BoredScientist
Summary: After a violent car accident, Lamb and Veronica spend time together trying and figure out who is responsible for causing it. Veronica is in protective custody, Lamb's custody.
1. Chapter 1

They'll say it was an accident; that no one could have prevented it. They'll tell her that it wouldn't have mattered if she had been driving, or if they'd gone a different route. They'll say that sometimes these things happen, cars aren't perfect, sometimes the brakes fail, and you lose control and flip over the side of the road, and the one person who means anything to you is trapped inside when the fire starts.

They'll say that it was amazing that she even got him out.

She knew that in reassuring voices they'd tell her she had done everything she could. But she sat there, and stared at the body. She saw his legs blackened from where they had caught on fire before she dragged him away from the car, and his right arm that was twisted at the entirely wrong angle for something that should have been alive…

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the flashing red and blue lights… good, the police were on their way… That's was good, she and a distant memory of thinking that she should call them but couldn't remember if she actually did. Not that she could focus on much of anything…everything sounded muted like she was listening to it underwater. She numbly realized she was probably in shock. She should focus, she told herself. On something, anything, anyone… anyone except the body lying next to her.

"Veronica, Veronica, Are you okay?! What happened?" He could barely look at her. She had her arms wrapped around her middle like she was literally trying to hold herself together. "Lamb?" her voice sounded small and pathetic even to her. "My dad's dead." She grabbed his shirt and started to sob harder, unaware that she had been crying in the first place.

Out of the haze of voices and noises she heard one thing perfectly clear "…asked the Wizard…" She stared daggers at him. This brought her back from the dead, this asshole in front of her. HER FATHER HAD JUST DIED and he's going to tell her to go see the Wizard? She laughed to herself. Had she really expected reassuring voices? This was Neptune and people telling her to get a backbone after traumatic events was par for the course...especially for Lamb. She tried to focus…

"What did you just say to me!" she managed to choke out.

He gave her a confused look before saying, "Did you hear me Veronica? He's not dead."

"He's…"

"You must have asked the Wizard for some luck, the EMTs got a pulse"

She gaped at him, not daring to believe him "but I checked for one…I couldn't…"

"What Mars, Did you graduate from Medical School since I last talked to you? He's alive, I promise. Now calm down and tell me what the hell happened."

She watched as the EMTs loaded her father into the back of the Ambulance and then looked back to Lamb. He looked... concerned? About her? That must be wrong... maybe she had a concussion.

She had his jacket wrapped around her shoulders. When had that happened?

"Come on Mars, let's get you checked out"

"Why Deputy, and here I thought you didn't care."

With that, Lamb bent down and lifted her into his arms. She knew she should protest, maybe make some quip about him trying to feel her up in her emotionally disturbed state. She'd cite that she would never be that emotionally disturbed... see, the comment was right there on the tip of her tongue! But instead of saying it, she leaned her head on Lamb's shoulder. Later she'd tell herself that she was too exhausted for a bickering match. It couldn't possibly be that she felt safe and that she was that if he put her down the whole situation would shatter again. She was just now feeling like she could take a deep breath. It wasn't that she didn't want him to put her down. No, no, that couldn't be it. She was just tired and if Deputy Don wanted to be civil, she was going to let him. That was obviously all that was happening.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Chapter 2

She had fallen asleep during the ride to the hospital, passed out was probably more accurate. He wasn't sure how she had held it together for as long as she did.

He had planned on dropping her off at the ambulance and heading back over to analyze the scene of the crash. Veronica still hadn't told him what happened, but he knew Keith Mars and he knew Keith would never take attention off the road if it meant putting his daughter in danger. There was almost no way this was an accident. He sighed. There were a million things running through his head by the time he reached the EMTs, Veronica quiet in his arms.

He put her down on the gurney and turned to walk away but a small pressure on his forearm stopped him.

"Lamb…I…where are you going?"  
"To do my job, Veronica, I'm the sheriff...I have to examine the scene."

He was prepared for an insult. For some variation on "Why start doing your job now?" or "Oh, there's a first time for everything." What he was not prepared for was the look on her face. She looked at him the same way she had only once before… same long blonde hair… same runny makeup… hell, she was even wearing white under his jacket. He could barely stand that look in his memory, let alone here in the flesh. Especially because she wasn't that girl anymore. This Veronica was made out of stronger stuff than the Veronica of a few years ago. The look on her face just didn't belong there. He didn't know how to respond so he looked down at the small hand that was still preventing him from leaving.

"Veronica."  
"Please?" She sounded so tiny. He wasn't entirely sure what she was asking but she visibly relaxed when he said "I'll be right back."

He felt her eyes on his back as he made his way to Sacks. He explained that he was headed to the hospital and to call him if they found anything. Veronica let out an audible sigh when he climbed into the back of the ambulance with her and shut the doors. He really didn't know what to make of that… or of the fact that she was holding onto his jacket so tightly.

"Are you cold?"  
She ignored him.

"I really thought he was dead." He didn't know what to say so he just stared at her until she started crying again. He was never good with overly emotional displays, especially from someone like Veronica, who never let him see the least bit of weakness. He reached over to push some hair out of her face, not content to just stare at her anymore. He wasn't sure if he expected her to pull away or not, but he certainly didn't expect her to lean into his touch.

"Sleep, Mars"

"Are you going to leave?"

"We're in the back of an ambulance, where am I going to go?" he smirked at her.

"That's not what I meant" she whispered so low that be could barely hear it as she closed her eyes.

When Veronica didn't wake up even after they'd arrived at the hospital Lamb figured it was a good time for him to go check on Keith. He wasn't sure what to expect as he walked into the ICU. The dislocated shoulder had been set, though he probably tore something. The doctors were planning to look at that after the more pertinent injuries were addressed. Lamb learned that while Keith had yet to regain consciousness his brain activity was good. Keith's legs were covered in second degree burns, but apparently Veronica had gotten him out of the flipped cab before he'd sustained any life-threatening injuries. Lamb still had no idea how she did that. The girl must weigh 110 pounds, soaking wet, how she managed to pull an unconscious body twice her size out of a burning car… he'd have to ask her. Actually, that was his job; he really did have to ask her. He smiled at that, sometimes being Sheriff wasn't so bad.

He headed back to Veronica's room. They'd admitted her for observation. She walked away from that accident almost unscathed, physically anyway. Lamb saw his coat on the chair by her bed and sat down next to her. He knew he could leave. In fact, he knew he should leave. He should go check out the scene. But he had told Sacks to call him if… as if on a timer his phone rang…Great, the break line was cut and there were pieces of foreign contaminant in the gas tank, a crude bomb, most likely. Surprise, Surprise, attempted murder in Neptune. After telling Sacks to send someone to guard Keith Mars's hospital room he hung up the phone.

Lamb ran his hand over his eyes to try to relieve some of the tension and looked at the sleeping girl next to him once more. She was shivering. He knew it was more sanitary, but did hospitals always have to be so damn cold? After an unsuccessful search for a blanket, he wrapped her in his jacket for the second time that night.

He realized he was staring at her. It wasn't like he got the chance to look at her so closely when she was awake.

God, she was beautiful, she always had been…even when she was too young and he shouldn't have noticed. He never would have done anything about it, but he would be lying if he said he hadn't noticed. He pushed some hair out of her eyes once more and hoped that this image of a sleeping Veronica in white would take the place of the white clad Veronica from his memory. This one he could handle, this one he had taken care of... _Focus _he told himself _there are more important issues here than your guilt trips and your infatuations …_

He smacked his gum. Right, so he just had to find someone who had a vendetta against Keith Mars. Well that rounded down the list.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

When Veronica opened her eyes it took her longer than her usual 45 seconds to remember where she was and why she was there. As soon as she realized she was in the hospital she was distracted trying to figure out was why the hospital around her smelled like man… good smelling man...wasn't it supposed to smell like chlorine bleach in here? Wait a minute; her sleuth prowess was coming back to her... This wasn't a blanket at all! Why was she covered in a jacket from one of Neptune's-not-so-finest? …And who gave them permission to smell so good? A look to the left… she had to suppress a laugh. Lamb had fallen asleep in the chair next to her bed. Feet up, mouth hanging open, and his head rolled back. Before she could even contemplate how weird that was that he was asleep in her hospital room he let out a giant snort and jerked awake. He looked right at her with an intensity she wasn't prepared for, so she did what she always does, she deflected.

"Wow Deputy, did anyone ever tell that you sure are pretty when you sleep? You might want to clear away some of that drool though…" her voice dropped to a stage-whisper "it detracts from your animal magnetism."

Lamb tried to discretely check his chin while mumbling something that sounded like "Sheriff" and she arched her eyebrow at him.

"Let's not argue semantics, Deputy, tell me about my dad, where is he? I want to see him." She was already starting to get up when he moved to stop her. She was so distracted about trying to get passed him that she fell off the hospital bed and twisted her ankle.

"Ow! Ow, ow, ow…" she pouted in Lamb's direction.

"Leave it to you, Veronica Mars," he said as he tried to help her up. "You escape from a burning car unharmed only to break yourself trying to leave the hospital."

"What can I say? Irony and I kind of have this arrangement…"

Veronica went to hobble her way towards the nurses' station at the end of the hall that she had just set her sights on when she heard Lamb snicker behind her. She assumed it was because of her not-so-graceful shamble

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I don't enjoy the view, but you might want to at least put on some pants before you go wandering down the hall."

She stopped dead. _Oh. My. God._ Don Lamb had just seen her butt. No. No, this was obviously a nightmare; she was naked in her nightmares a lot so it stood to reason. She tried to grab behind her and close the hospital gown but she lost her balance and fell down, again…on her ankle, again. "Definitely a nightmare" she muttered to herself.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

He thought about not mentioning it and just enjoying the view of Veronica's open hospital gown, but figured she'd notice eventually, and to be honest, he didn't want to be on the receiving end of her 50,000 volts. He couldn't help but laugh when she fell down trying to cover herself up. He walked over and picked her up off the floor. "Calm down before you hurt yourself again, I'll get a nurse."

Lamb got himself a cup of coffee before heading back to Veronica's room to find her, unfortunately, fully clothed and trying to figure out how to maneuver her way around the room on crutches.

"So the nurse told me that he was sleeping but wouldn't tell me anything else…what do you know?" and before Lamb could even open his mouth "Never mind, I want to see him." He pushed her shoulders down to make her sit on the bed before answering.

"He regained consciousness sometime during the night, he's worse for the wear and he has to stay hospital-bound for awhile, but he'll be fine, no long term damage. Though if you hadn't been…" he paused because she had reached over and taken the coffee out of his hand to drink it. "… sure, have some, I don't mind…" he sarcastically added.

"Ugh, what did you put in this!? Is this…Is this a cappuccino? Seriously, Deputy, I pegged you for a black coffee man, remind me to put you down for an espresso machine for Christmas."

"Shut up, Blondie. The regular coffee machine was broken, this was all they had." He proceeded to leave out the fact that be probably would have gotten the machine-ready cappuccino anyway, she could think whatever she wanted, but there was no denying that the French Vanilla was delicious, sure, he would never order it in public, but from a machine… He was pulled out of his reverie by her handing him back the cup, crossing her arms, and saying "Come on, Donnie, tell me about the car."

He rolled his eyes, "Veronica, you know I can't discuss an open investigation with you."

Her eyes narrowed, "what do you mean an investigation? It wasn't an accident?"

_Oh crap. _ "I…uh… oh hell, you'll find out anyway. The brake lines were cut. And there's remnants of what we think is a bomb in the gas tank. We're trying to figure out who would be going after your dad." She mumbled something he couldn't hear with a concerned look on her face. "Hey, speak up, what did you say?"

"Are you sure they're going after _him_?"

"Well it was his car."

"Did you check my Saturn?"

_Shit._ "Well, I didn't think of…"

"Aw thinking? Why start now, don't you worry your pretty little Deputy head," she proceeded to pat him on the cheek, "let's let me do the thinking, shall we. Just because I was almost killed yesterday is no reason to upset the status quo. Seriously, call Sacks, I'll wait."

He swore under his breath because he knew she was probably right. He walked into the hallway without looking back so he didn't have to see what was sure to be her stereotypical smug eyebrow raise that seemed to be on her whenever he was in her proximity. He liked her so much better when she was sleeping.

Twenty minutes later he walked back into her hospital room. She was sitting on the bed flipping through a copy of Cosmo that he had no idea how she'd gotten a hold of. "Well Mars, starting now you're under the watchful eye of the Neptune County Sheriff's Department."

"I take it that's because my car was rigged and not because you want an excuse to see my shinning face all day."

"Oh Please, I need you in my life like Europe needed the plague."

"Oh, very nice, World History. You mean you actually passed high school? Or do you just remember that from cheating off of the kid next to you? Don't answer that. I'll take 'When can I go back to my apartment' for 1,000, Alex."

"Sorry, you forgot to buy a vowel. You can't go back to your place at all until the bomb squad checks it out then you can pack a bag. You can't stay there. Whoever is after your family knows where you live, we need to keep you someplace safe; you'll be staying with me." He looked smug.

"Okay, first of all, that's Wheel of Fortune, not Jeopardy. Learn your TV game-shows Deputy Do-Wrong. And second of all, I'll be staying where?!"

"It's either that or I can lock you in a jail cell at night, whichever you prefer, really."

"So let me get this straight, my father and I will be moving in with you…"

"No, your father needs to stay in the hospital. They're not ready to release him yet. They'll be someone guarding his room, don't worry, I'm not an idiot." She threw him a look that said she didn't exactly believe the latter part of that statement but, thankfully, didn't comment.

She furrowed her brow, "What about Backup?"

"Inga can take him. He can play with the puppies." He noticed the look on her face and said "No, I'm not taking your dog to my apartment."

"But he likes you! I'm not sure why, since he's usually such a good judge of character…"

"Not winning any points here, Mars. Besides," he pointed at her taped up ankle and her crutches, "it's not like you can walk him. He'll stay with Inga, just be happy I'm not putting him in a kennel."

She pouted a little more but without any real conviction and when a nurse came in and said "Miss Mars, your father is awake if you would like to see him" she practically fell out of the bed (again) in enthusiasm.

After giving some instructions to the Deputy stationed outside Keith's room and telling him to drop Veronica off at his apartment after the shift change at 6, he left the hospital. Lamb needed to get some things done before tonight. He needed to shower. He should probably buy some groceries, maybe vacuum… Yeah, he had some preparations to make if Veronica Mars was going to be staying at his apartment. Oh hell, Veronica Mars was going to be staying at his apartment…

To Be Continued…


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Sorry for the delay, real life got in the way.  
Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE REVIEWS :)

Chapter Five

After finally seeing her father alive and … _well_ wouldn't exactly be the word she would use, he wasn't _well_ unless he was in pristine condition, not a hair harmed on his little balding head, she started to breathe easier. She realized that ever since Lamb had said her dad was fine she didn't question him. Well that wasn't like her at all. After all they'd been through was she really starting to trust him again? She had hardly put up a fight at all when he told her she had to stay with him… man, she must be losing her edge. She'd have to be sure to make life hard for him in the coming days…

Veronica looked back over at her father, now sleeping soundly again thanks to the pain meds. She couldn't believe she'd almost lost him. That was twice now, that she'd thought he was dead. When she first crutched into the room he looked at her seriously and said "All right, we're even, but let's not try again, hmm? No more getting stuck inside burning things? Agreed?" Awesome. She'd finally stopped having nightmares about being trapped in that damn refrigerator and now this car accident was going to haunt her.

She shook her head and turned back to _106 Ways to Please Your Man_, really, just how many PG euphemisms _can _Cosmo come up with for the word "Penis"?

She started mentally making a list of all the things she'd need to pack for Lamb's. Seriously? I'm packing an overnight bag like this is a sleepover… maybe I should make him get Cocoa with mini marshmallows and see if I can get him to watch romantic comedies in his flannel PJs. Something in the back of her head told her that Lamb probably wasn't a flannel pajama pant sort of guy. "hmmm," she closed her eyes, "Boxers? Briefs? Commando?" She leaned back in the chair, balancing precariously on the two legs and imagined each in turn, blushing to herself when she started to imagine his bare ass.

"Boxer-briefs, actually. I find that they're the right amount of support and breathability."

Veronica's eyes shot open as she turned her head to look towards the voice, unfortunately this resulted in her losing her balance and the chair fell backwards. Lamb acted quickly and grabbed the back before she fell too far, putting the chair stably on all 4 of its legs.

"Really, Veronica, if you keep falling over I might just tie you up for the duration. Make it easier on both of us."

She managed to raise an eyebrow at him as she suppressed a giggle until he realized what he had unintentionally implied. She laughed outright as Lamb's eyes widened in recognition. But he covered it smoothly enough. He leaned down and whispered, "Hey, now, don't knock it until you try it. What, none of your little millionaire boyfriends got that adventurous? What a shame. You were probably wasted on them." She gaped as he winked at her. "You know, the cuddling isn't supposed to be the best part." He smirked, straightened up, and smacked his gum as he said "Ready to go, Blondie?"

She shook his scent out of her head and answered, "What are you even doing back here? I thought Anonymous Deputy Number Twelve out there was dropping me off at your place."

He shrugged, "I was back in the neighborhood, besides, the sweep on your apartment was clean and I figured you would want to stop and get your stuff."

She perked up at that and reached forward to grab her bag and her crutches. She leaned over and kissed her sleeping father on the forehead before turning around and hobbling towards Lamb. It took her a second to realize why he was holding up her magazine. She had left it open to a page with a half naked man on it…not that that's saying much, three-quarters of the pages of Cosmo pages have half naked men on them. Unfortunately for her, this man kind of eerily resembled the man in front of her; brown hair, good bone structure, piercing blue eyes…_piercing blue eyes?! Get a grip, Veronica_, she told herself. "Don't get flattered, I read it for the articles," she said, responding to his silent chastising.

She watched as he looked down at the page and then raised an eyebrow at her "_106 Ways to Please Your Man?_ Well far be it for me to interrupt your educational experience."

"No, no, I was reading the other article, '47 Ways to Outsmart Local Law Enforcement' sure it's mostly about flashing some cleavage to get out of a speeding ticket, but I was hoping there'd be something in there about solving a case to get out of protective custody. Alas, I was sadly disappointed. Until you walked in, obviously. Now I'm practically bursting with fruit flavor!" she crutched towards the door, "Ready to roll, Roomie?"

"Don't call me that." He followed her out of the room.

"Sure thing, Deputy."

She beamed at him as he shook his head but she noticed a small smile on his lips.

She managed the walk to the car, thankfully, without falling down again and headed back to her apartment, Lamb in the driver's seat.

Veronica packed a small bag for her dad, some case files, a book or two, some toiletries. Mostly stuff to keep him sane. She brought it out into the kitchen and Lamb looked at her surprised "Wow, Mars, just a backpack? I figured I'd be toting a suitcase out of her full of your crap."

"Yeah… this is for my dad, but don't worry, I'm opting for the duffle bag, it doesn't even have wheels, plenty of chances for you to prove your manliness here, no worries, Deputy."

"If I felt like I had to prove my manliness to you, Mars, toting around your luggage wouldn't be the way I'd do it."

Veronica told herself that she was packing her cute underwear sets because they were the cleanest, regardless of the fact that she really didn't need matching bra and panty sets while staying at Lamb's. Nor did she really need to pack her perfume. _Girls want to smell nice_ she told herself, _that's my story and I'm sticking to it._ She stopped trying to make up excuses for herself when she packed her cutest, silkiest pair of pajama pants. After grabbing her toiletries she sighed and zipped up her duffle. "Okay, Lambikins, come and prove your usefulness."

She turned around and he was already waiting in the doorway, leaning on the frame. "Lambikins? Why don't we stick with Lamb… or Don, since you'll be staying with me, I don't really feel like correcting you every five minutes."

"What, no ambiguous pet-names? You're taking away all my fun, Sheriff." She pouted at him.

"Oh sure, now I'm Sheriff."

"Well, look at you. All clad in Brown Polyester, carrying my bags, gun strapped to your hip… if this isn't protecting and serving, I just don't know what is."

"Oh, Veronica… if this is your idea of protecting a serving…" he shook his head, "I already told you, the cuddling isn't supposed to be the best part."

He walked ahead of her putting the bags in the trunk and she climbed into the passenger's seat of his cruiser. After about thirty seconds of silence she said, "So speaking of being roomies, the last time I was in your apartment you only had one bed. 'Splain."

"What do you mean the last time you were in my apartment. You've never been in my apartment…"

"Um… yeah… you might want to find a better place to hide your spare key. Under the mat is really passé."

"Veronica…" he grumbled darkly, but she could tell he wasn't actually surprised or upset.

They rode in relative silence to his apartment and she realized that this was probably the longest they'd ever been in the same place at the same time since she was about 15…barring the times he'd arrested her, of course.

This was sure to be a very interesting little slumberparty…

TO BE CONTINUED…


	6. Chapter 6

A/N Sorry for the delay. Real life got really in the way.

Chapter Six:

When they reached his apartment, Lamb was uncharacteristically nervous. Hell, this was the first time a woman was here that he wasn't brining in for the sole purpose of sleeping with in… ever? Well, no, that female deputy came over to bring some case files once… but with a mustache that rivaled Sacks'… he mentally shuddered away from the image. Lamb sighed and opened up the door.

"Well Mars, welcome to your temporary residence."

Lamb watched Veronica look around and laughed when she said "Well at least one part of you cleans up nice." In truth, he had come home and cleaned up; throwing out empty beer bottles and doing some general tidying up. He had set himself up a bed on the big leather sofa

"You can take the bed. I set myself here on the couch."

"But Donnie," he watched her smirk at him, "I'm the young, limber one, shouldn't I get shafted to the couch?"

He bit back a remark about him being plenty limber and answered, "It's not for comfort, Mars, it's because I don't trust you. You'll try to sneak out of the place while I'm sound asleep in my room."

"Ah, not as dumb as he looks, I see. Okay, I'm going to take a shower. I smell like a foot wrapped in leathery, burnt bacon"

He laughed, "Did you just make a Star Wars, Robot Chicken reference?"

"Aren't we a little old to be watching cartoons, Sheriff?"

"Hey, now, it's called Adult Swim for a reason. Besides, you made the reference, who are you to judge?"

"Please, Lamb, I am a college girl. Besides doing body shots and flashing total strangers, cartoons are obviously my number one priority."

"Body shots, eh?"

She hobbled towards the bathroom with her backpack and said, "I'll leave you to contemplate that one as I shower. I expect food when I get out. I'm a growing girl and hospital Jello is going to stunt my growth."

Lamb laughed and shouted through the closing door, "You weren't even in there for two days!"

He brought the rest of Veronica's things into his room and changed into a tight fitting t-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants and started on dinner. Lamb figured that Veronica couldn't complain too much about ravioli. As he shuffled around his kitchen, boiling water, heating sauce, and toasting garlic bread, he couldn't help but think about how… unweird this all felt. It was almost as if he and Veronica still had the same damn relationship they'd had when she was 15, before he fucked everything up. He thought back on Veronica's naked butt in the hospital as he stirred the onions into the pasta sauce. Okay, maybe they didn't have the _exact_ same relationship they had when she was 15. He would have felt guilty after checking out her ass at 15. Now that she was 21, practically a college graduate… if he knew what was good for himself he wouldn't finish that thought.

Lamb looked at the clock above the stove, 35 minutes? Really? Even on days that he took care of some extra business in the shower, he was still out of there in 15 minutes. Almost on cue, he heard the water shut off. He added the sauce to the ravioli and spooned some out into dishes for them while Veronica got dressed.

Lamb looked up as she walked out. Her long blonde hair was wet down her back and she was wearing a loose fitting sweatshirt over a tight, white, midriff bearing tank top, and a pair of silky teal pajama pants. He thought she looked like sin… Oh crap, he'd been starting. Fortunately, Veronica didn't seem to notice.

"FOOD! Yes! Wow, Lamb, did you cook this? I was expecting pizza." She looked impressed. He smiled genuinely because she wasn't patronizing him for once.

"It's just pasta, if you're good, maybe I'll make you chicken enchiladas sometime during your stay."

She smiled at him with a glint in her eye and said "Well you know how I am with following the rules. I guess I'll be having store-bought mac and cheese for the duration of my stay."

Lamb headed for the fridge, "Drink?"

"Do you have any wine? I feel like I need a drink after the last few days."

He glanced towards his liquor cabinet and frowned, he wasn't really a wine guy.

"Eh, I have beer. Whiskey? Bourbon? Gin? I can probably make you a martini…" He said _martini_ the way most people pronounce the word _anthrax_. Lamb had known a lot of the kind of women who drank martinis and he hoped he didn't have another one staying at his house.

"Do you have any lime juice?"

"Well then, sir" she spoke in a really poor English accent, "I could do for a gin on the rocks with lime. Pip Pip Cherio. Thanks Ole' Chap."

He looked at her, amused. "What the hell are you on?"

"I am on stress, Lambipoo, now make me a drink and bring my meal." Did she actually just snap her hand at him? "I'll pick out the movie."

She was lucky that he still felt bad about checking her out earlier, housekeeper was not a role he usually enjoyed playing. He dropped the plates of ravioli on his coffee table and made their drinks. He brought a bottle of water over too. Thinking they might want it to supplement their bourbon and gin. He sat down on the other end of the couch and Veronica pressed play. He laughed when he heard the Entertainer play. Lamb looked over at her "The Sting"?

"I fully support anything that has Paul Newman in it. Besides, this movie is a cinematic masterpiece." She took a large swig of her drink. "And besides that, we used to watch it, remember?"

"You used to tell me that I looked like Paul Newman."

"Ah yes, well I was young, and naïve, and my brain was clouded by the ever-present symphonies of the Backstreet Boys. What did you expect?"

They laughed and bantered, and about twenty minutes into the movie Lamb felt Veronica push an empty glass towards him. "I require more happy juice."

"Did you really just call that happy juice? Did you turn into an alcoholic since the last time we hung out?"

"This, Deputy Don, is not hanging out. This" she motioned around his apartment "is weird."

"No it's not."

"You're right, but it should be," She answered as she took her newly poured drink from him. Lamb brought the bottles of liquor back over to the coffee table, not even bothering to refresh his ice. After a split second of decision, he sat closer to the middle of the couch than he had before. Veronica stretched her feet over his legs and fixed her slightly drunk eyes on his flatscreen TV.

Lamb took a large gulp of his bourbon and put down his glass, resting his hands on the portion of Veronica's legs that hung over his. He smiled to himself as he heard her breath hitch and decided to be bold. Or maybe the liquor decided for him. What was this his second or third glass?

"You look tense, Blondie."

"Almost dying will do that to you."

"I remember," he said, shuttering slightly at the memory of the bat hitting his head. Well, not so much the memory, he didn't remember it happening, just waking up in the hospital a week later.

He felt Veronica sit up and look at him, her legs still in his lap. He turned his head towards her, his brow still furrowed in thought.

"I'm glad you didn't die."

He laughed at her outright, "well isn't that sweet."

"Oh, crap, I meant it nicer than that," her speech was slurred… but then again, so was his. "I'm sorry." She looked straight into his eyes and he wasn't exactly sure what she was saying. But he knew what he needed to say.

"No, I'm sorry." They held that stare for a long time, he hoped she read what she wanted him to. He was sorry for everything. Sorry for ruining it. Sorry for selling out the only family he'd ever really had.

"Fine, you do kind of look like Paul Newman, stop hassling me, will you?" She sighed, smiled, and leaned back into the corner of the couch, still leaving her legs on him. Lamb picked up one of her petite feet and started to massage it, happy when he heard her coo in response. "It's cool, as long as you keep doing that, I forgive you."

He laughed and kept going, zoning out on the movie.

Lamb woke up and the TV had turned off. He looked at his clock, 2am. He looked to his right and Veronica was sleeping curled into a ball. He was still a little drunk. He drank some of the water next to him and He got up to use the bathroom and when he got back he realized he didn't want to leave her sleeping on the couch.

He lightly shook her shoulder, "Veronica. Hey, Mars, bedtime, kid."

She didn't even open her eyes as lifted her arms up like a three year old and he laughed at her.

"Carry the cripple."

He laid her in his bed and wished that he was drunk enough to justify getting in with her. Instead he breathed out heavily and covered her with his dark red sheet and his brown comforter, pushing her now dry hair behind her ear and headed back out to the couch.

* * *

Lamb heard a scream and rolled off the couch, smacking his head onto the coffee table.

"FUCK!" he grabbed his gun from the holster on the armchair and ran towards his bedroom. He expected to see Veronica being pulled out a window or assaulted, instead she was just thrashing in his bed, tears running down her face. His features softened, "Veronica, wake up, honey, wake up."

Her eyes shot open and she threw her arms around him. "Is he dead?" she said in a small voice.

It took him a minute to realize that she had dreamed of the crash. Of course. "No, your dad is fine. Go back to sleep."

Lamb got up to leave when he felt her grab his arm. "Stay?" she said.

He should have said no, but instead he got into the bed beside her and breathed deeply into her hair when she rolled into his chest, already back asleep.

He hoped she'd remember asking him in the morning, because if she didn't he felt like he'd be on the losing end of a taser battle. _Either Way_, he thought as he wrapped his other arm around her, _I'm too tired to move. _


	7. Chapter 7

A/N Hey guys, thanks for all the reviews!!! This chapter is pretty long so hopefully it makes up for my absence I'll try to be more timely!

Chapter 7:

Veronica woke up and immediately thought that she'd imagined the last 3 weeks. She felt the warm, comforting weight of a man behind her. Spooning with his arms held tightly around her middle. Okay, so she'd had a crazy nightmare and she was still happily rebounding with Logan. She and Piz had broken up earlier in the semester. What was the point of a theme park without the roller coaster? Pizneyland was NOT that happiest place on earth. He'd taken it okay, until he saw her walking arm in arm with Logan. That didn't end well and she'd gotten chewed out by Wallace for breaking Piz's heart. Okay, that's not exactly what Wallace said. It was something more like "_you couldn't have waited three more months?! I wouldn't be living with him after that and I wouldn't have had to deal with it. Now it's Pout, Pout, Veronica, Pout…_" Sorry Wallace, Piz was just… too nice a guy. It would never have worked between them.

Her rebound with Logan had lasted all of a week; they both knew that they didn't work together in the long term. She just wanted to remember what it was like to feel her blood boil in the bedroom. They were still friends, but they weren't meant to be anything more. Wait, that's right. It was over, why was she in bed with… that wasn't Logan's cologne. She opened her eyes. This wasn't the suite in the Neptune Grand. Oh. God. She opened her eyes and the bright sun harshly reminded her of the amount of gin she drank the night before. That's right, there had been drinking. And flirting. And now, well, this was definitely snuggling. Frantically she tipped her head down, HAD THERE BEEN SOMETHING BETWEEN FLIRTING AND SNUGGLING? She let out a sigh. No, she was still fully clothed. Well, there was that.

She felt some serious butterflies when she felt Lamb breathe out against her neck and tighten his grip around her middle. This should not feel so good. She should be throwing a fit and threatening to taze him. She should not be leaning back into him and closing her eyes. Lamb was not supposed to make her heart beat faster unless it was in rage. Oil and Water. Lamb and Mars. That's how it went. End of list. There was nothing in the cards for accidental cuddling or racing heartbeats. She felt Lamb shift behind her and pull her closer again. Veronica breathed in sharply as she felt his mouth softly come in contact with her neck and his hips roll subtly into hers. The fact that it was morning was extremely evident on his body, and it was pushing insistently through their pajama bottoms. When nothing else happened for what seemed to Veronica like minutes, she realized that Lamb was probably still asleep.

The alarm went off, blaringly loud and Veronica felt Lamb stir. So, she did the only thing she could think of. She closed her eyes and pretended to still be asleep. She listened as Lamb groaned, pulling one arm away from her and smacking his alarm clock. She expected him to be as freaked out be their proximity as she was. Maybe jumping out of the bed immediately, pretending it never happened. She did not expect him to run his free hand down her bare arm, so light that if she were asleep, she never would have even felt it. He ran his hand back up her arm body stopped at her face. She felt his breath, light as a feather, across her cheek as he kissed her temple softly. She could just lay there speechless. He rolled off the side of the bed and she heard him say to himself, "Shit, Don, What the hell are you doing?" When she heard the shower turn on she figured it was safe to open her eyes.

What the HELL had just happened? Was Lamb being… sweet? WHY DIDN'T SHE WANT TO TAZE HIM? That should be her default reaction to waking up in bed with Don Lamb. But no, all she could think was that she would have rather he not still been asleep when he rolled his morning wood into her. "_Morning Wood," Veronica. Did you really just think that?_ She ran a hand down her face and moved to stand up, almost forgetting that she still needed crutches. The crutches that were, unfortunately, still in the living room because Lamb had carried her to bed. It was all coming back… slowly. AHA! A water bottle! Glorious. She hoped this would cure her ever pounding headache. _6:45am? Why am I awake_?

As a senior in college she knew what she needed. Hell, by this time in their lives everyone had a hangover cure. She and Mac had theirs down pat: A room temperature Diet Coke, in a can (a bottle was just _too_ fizzy) and a plain bagel, not toasted, not anything. Also sleep… Much. More. Sleep. She heard the shower shut off and realized that there's a solid chance that a naked Don Lamb could come walking into this room any minute. She liked the idea far more than she cared to admit… Alas out walked Lamb, dripping wet, and wrapped in a towel.

"Hey, Mars, good morning. You seemed like you were out for the count."

_  
Oh, when you were kissing my forehead, you mean? _"Yeah, I…uh… heard the shower."

"Ah, well…" he looked a little uncomfortable, "Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you. I have to go to work. It's early, though, you should try to get some more sleep. You look really hung over."

"Ah, you know just what to say to a lady to make her feel her prettiest."

He raised an eyebrow at her and ignored her. "They'll be someone stationed outside the apartment if you need anything. You can go visit your dad at the hospital if whatever deputy assigned is feeling friendly, otherwise you're on lockdown."

"But I have classes!" she interjected.

"Nice try, it's spring break." Damn, should have known he wouldn't fall for that one. "Well I have to work."

"No, you don't. We can stop by Mars Investigations tomorrow and you can pick up any case files you need, or more importantly, that will help me solve this case."

"Help US solve this case."

"Sure, Mars, whatever you say." She laughed as he rolled his eyes at her.

"What if I want to invite people over?"

"You planning on having a kegger while I'm at the station?"

"You know me, Donnie, I'm a social creature, loved by one and all. I'm just not myself if I'm not surrounded by a room full of adoring spectators."

"Well who am I to separate the amazing Veronica Mars and her adoring public? Just let the officer outside know someone is coming over."

"Good, well, on to more important matters. I require room temperature Diet Coke, canned, and a plain bagel."

"Um…?" He looked at her confused.

"It's the patented Veronica Mars hangover cure."

"Right, well, why don't you let me put on some pants first, and I'll see what I have lying around."

She had nearly forgotten that Lamb was standing in front of her in a towel. As her eyes traced over his abs and chest Veronica could swear that she blushed at least ten shades of red. She was a little upset with herself for doing it actually, it's not like she'd never seen a half naked man before. Hell, this was California, any time she took Back Up for a walk she saw at least 3 half naked men… not the point.

She looked up at Lamb as he was grabbing his uniform pants out of the closet. "No, you can stay in here, I have to use the bathroom anyway, though I could use some help with the locale of my crutches. Someone was inconsiderate enough to leave them out of reach after carrying me to bed." Oh crap, she was flirting again.

"Oh well forgive me, your highness." She assumed that he would just go into the other room and grab them, but no, he threw her over his shoulder and carried her to the living room, plopping her on the couch right next to her crutches. "Better _locale_?" he said, mocking her.

Lamb didn't even wait for a response; he just turned and walked away. As Veronica grabbed her crutches and hobbled to the bathroom she most certainly did NOT check out his towel clad ass. Oh Man, she was in trouble.

Lamb had managed to find her a 2 liter bottle of ginger ale from the back of a cabinet and a packet of frozen bagels. "Close enough," he'd cited before heading off to the station. Veronica went back to sleep as soon as she was done with her hangover feast. Though, after waking up in Lamb's arms, the bed felt a little empty when she went back to sleep on her own. Between napping, showering, cleaning up the drinks from last night, and calling her dad at the hospital, Veronica had managed to successfully kill time for 7 hours. It was 1:00pm and she was now, officially, bored.

Daytime TV offered her nothing, so she thought about who to invite over to Deputy Don's house. Normally she would have said Mac, she'd had the least interaction with Lamb, and would find this the least weird. But No, Mac and her parents were on vacation. Camping again, she thought. Wallace was visiting his dad over spring break and things between she and Parker had been a little rough for awhile. She should really try to work on that when this was all done. She liked Parker, sure, Parker was a little bubbly, but she still liked her. What, with Veronica's ridiculously large circle of friends there was really only one other person to call. She dialed Logan's number and told him to come entertain her, though she made him promise that there would be no destruction of the fine Deputy's personal property.

After he agreed to keep her company, Veronica walked out of the apartment and waved the officer outside down. Seconds later Lamb's landline rang and she answered it, telling the Deputy calling from the car outside that one of her friends was coming to visit to help keep her sane during her occupation of Casa De Lamb.

When Logan arrived, he held up Scrabble and she laughed at him. "Oh, you are going down, rich-boy!" As they played the third round of the board game on Lamb's coffee table she was happy at how at ease they were with each other. Honestly, this was the best their relationship had ever been. It was almost as if their one week post-Piz-fling had been a form of closure for both of them. When he had first arrived they had talked about the accident and trying to think of who did it. But after awhile they'd settled into friendly conversation.

"You'll never guess who called me earlier?"

"Me?!"

Logan chuckled, "Okay, that is technically true. Let me rephrase. You'll never guess who ELSE called me today."

"Ghandi? Abe Bogota? MR MIAGI? Oh, Oh, I know…"

Logan interrupted her with a soft voice. "Hannah."

Veronica stared at him. "Hannah from Neptune High, Hannah?" Logan nodded. "Hannah, her dad tried to get you indicted for murder and then he shipped her away to a boarding school in Vermont, Hannah?!"

"Yes, Veronica, do we know another Hannah?"

"I… wow, well, what did she want?"

"She's transferring to Hearst next year. She's moving back to Neptune, Veronica. She wants to see me. She wants to give us another shot."

"You waited four hours to bring this up!? What did you say?"

"The car accident and your dad stuck in the hospital seemed more pertinent that my romantic endeavors."

"Nonsense, this is much less depressing. Besides, I need to live vicariously through the functional relationships of others, seeing as how I have so few of my own." Though as she spoke, Veronica thought back to last night Lamb and how good it all seemed.

"I think I might be in love with her. I think I always have been, I know I haven't seen her in years…" he seemed to catch himself. "I'm not saying that you and I didn't work out because I was thinking about Hannah, I… I was always thinking about us. You. Me. Together. I just mean…"

"Calm down, sparky. I'm not blaming you for anything. We've been over this. You and I are too similar yet too different. It would have never worked. This you and Hannah thing, though. This might be the right kind of star-crossed loving."

Logan chuckled and then said, "I'm kind of nervous, V, what if she changes her mind?"

Veronica reached over and pulled Logan into a hug. "You deserve this, Logan. Don't do anything dumb and it might just work out."

Logan was hugging her back tightly, though platonically, when they heard the door open. In walks Sherriff Don Lamb, looking thoroughly abashed for just a split second as his eyes caught Veronica's and took in the scene of her and Logan on his couch. Veronica quickly released Logan and looked towards Lamb apologetically. She saw him put something down on the counter and realized he'd bought her a bottle of red wine and a twelve pack of diet coke. Crap, when did Lamb start being sweet?

"Well Mars," he said "If I'd have known you were inviting your boyfriend over I would have called ahead. I only brought enough Chinese for two though, too bad." To Veronica, his voice sounded possessive. She didn't want to admit she kind of liked it.

"Well that's my cue," said Logan "Bye Veronica. Sherriff, always a pleasure."

Veronica would have laughed at the tension in the room if she understood it at all. Instead she just sat there, dumfounded, and annoyed that her next play on the Scrabble board would have been a seven-letter word. She looked at Lamb and felt like she should apologize, but instead she just said "So, Chinese? I hope you got dumplings" and smiled nervously at him.

To Be Continued…


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: We had a snow day at work today so I figured I'd write another chapter! Enjoy!!

Also, thanks for all the reviews! They totally make my day!

Chapter 8:

Don Lamb felt like a friggin' moron. He walks in and she's all over Logan Echolls. What had he expected? She was still asleep when he had gotten out of bed. It wasn't like she knew what was going through his head or how tightly she'd held onto him the night before. He wasn't the guy she was going to go to for comfort, that was obviously Echolls… still. Logan Fucking Echolls on his fucking couch. Awesome. And here he'd tried to make good for Veronica. He'd stopped on his way home and picked up her favorite Chinese food (or at least what had been her favorite Chinese food when she was 15), a $25 bottle of red wine, and her stupid hangover soda. Now he just looked like an idiot.

Okay, well, Echolls was leaving and he didn't kiss her goodbye. Maybe he was jumping to conclusions. It was possible… after all, they'd known each other for a long time. They could be just friends. What did he care anyway? What did it matter to him what or who Veronica Mars did? It didn't, he decided. He just didn't like Echolls was all. Had it been that Wallace kid, _you still would have been pissed_…

Veronica interrupted is internal monologue. "You okay there, Sherriff, you look a little shell shocked."

"I just didn't expect to walk into an episode of girls gone wild in the middle of my living room. Do you want a fork or can you eat with chopsticks?"

He hoped she'd ignore his obvious jealousy, yeah, like he'd ever be jealous of the damn Echolls kid, and just answer the last question. Of course, she was Veronica Mars, so she did the exact opposite of what he wanted.

"Man, if that's what's on the Girls Gone Wild videos I think I'm watching the wrong infomercials. There wasn't even any flashing. No girl on girl action. Nothing!"

He could tell she was trying to make him feel better but he really didn't feel like dealing with it. So he just looked at her and smacked his gum.

"I can eat with chopsticks," she finally answered. Lamb moved the Chinese food directly onto the open scrabble board on his coffee table and grabbed two glasses of water, completely ignoring the bottle of Cabernet on the counter. He watched Veronica hobble to the DVD player, "Well Sherriff sourpuss, it's lucky for you that I picked out another wonderful movie tonight. You can't possibly frown while watching THE DUDE, EL DUDARINO, HIS DUDENESS..." she trailed off.

The Big Lebowski was one of his favorites but he still was annoyed. "I have to watch the news," he answered.

"I watched it earlier. Nothing good happened in the world and you would already know anything that happened in Neptune. We're watching The Big Lebowski." She pressed play and then threw the remote dramatically to the other side of the room, and then seemed to remember that she was the only one who would have trouble reaching it. She looked so annoyed at herself that he forgot to be angry. Lamb laughed and got up to retrieve the remote, deliberately placing it back on the coffee table. Veronica had folded up the scrabble game and shoved it under the table. She smiled up at him when he sat down next to her instead of on the armchair where he was sitting before.

"What, no wine?"

"I didn't buy it for tonight. You just reminded me that I didn't have any in the apartment."

Out of his peripheral vision he saw her roll her eyes at him and he had to agree with her… that sounded awfully lame. "Sure you did. Well now that you have some how about we have a glass together anyway?" He couldn't think of a witty way to respond, so he got up, uncorked the wine, and poured two generous glasses, bringing the bottle back to the coffee table with him, and reaching over to shut off the living room light before he sat back down.

About halfway through the movie, the Chinese food had long since been cleared and Veronica had taken to leaning against his shoulder during her third glass of wine. When she held out her hand for more he was happy he'd sprung for the big bottle. She smiled up when he gave her back her glass. She was flirting with him. Hell, she seemed to be one step from batting her eyelashes at him. He sighed, "How would your boyfriend feel if he knew you were trying to get drunk with the local law enforcement two nights in a row?" and before he could stop himself he added "Echolls again, Mars? Here I thought you were supposed to be smart."

He was a little taken back when she outright laughed at him. "HA! Is that what your PMS mood swing was about? And here I thought something had happened at the station that you didn't want to tell me." She laughed again, "I promise I did not get jiggy wit it on your couch, Lamb. I'm not dating Logan, hell, I'm not dating anybody. Trust me, the rich-boy phase has come and gone. He came by as a friend only, someone to keep me occupied during my imprisonment." She leaned her head onto his shoulder and chuckled to herself once more. "No reason to be jealous, Deputy."

Ah, crap. He felt like an idiot again. But at least this time, he only felt like an idiot for sounding stupid. And he was kind of used to that, especially around Veronica Mars. What was it about her that made him act like a nervous 17 year old boy? Sure, she was gorgeous, but he'd been with tons of beautiful women. He was Neptune's own playboy. Okay, so she was smart too, that was something new and different for the women in his life. Beautiful and smart was a potent combination. But even that wasn't completely it. Veronica Mars kept him on his toes. She made him want to be a better cop, hell; she made him want to be a better all around guy. She was… real. Especially to him. To Don Lamb, Veronica Mars represented a better version of himself. So she wasn't dating anyone. He casually dropped an arm around her shoulders and she leaned in closer to him. Well then, he wasn't going to screw this up.

"This is protective custody, not an imprisonment. And Mars…sorry for the, uh, misunderstanding."

"It could happen to anyone who jumps to conclusions before they know all the facts," she patted his knee. "Which you do quite often, no hard feelings."

"Why do you call me Deputy?"

"Things were better between us when you were a Deputy. You were nicer, I liked you back then."

"You seem pretty all right with me now." He smiled to himself as she nestled minutely closer to his chest.

At this point, Veronica took to quoting the lines from the movie, doing her best Walter Sobchak impression. Lamb couldn't help but think of how good this felt. He closed his eyes and just enjoyed the feeling of Veronica's warm weight on him. He knew that tomorrow they'd be going to Mars Investigations, and that she'd probably figure out who was after her and her father in minutes. She'd be out of his life again. Well, not completely, she'd be around, _but not like this_ he thought as he ran a hand lightly up her arm. Lamb opened his eyes when he felt Veronica move. She had turned around on the couch and was now sitting on her haunches looking at him.

"You know, Sherriff, Polyester is not that comfortable to lie on." She said, pawing at the collar of his shirt, "Why are you still in your uniform?"

"Well I was a little distracted when I got home, you see. I'll go…" he stopped short because Veronica had started to unbutton his uniform shirt, simultaneously pulling it out of his pants. When she had finished her task, she removed the shirt from his shoulders and threw it on the arm chair next to them. Lamb's breath hitched as Veronica rubbed her hands appraisingly over the white cotton t-shirt he wore.

"That's better," she told him before leaning forward across his lap to grab a glass of water. Lamb had no idea what to do with his hands. Veronica's arched lower back and ass were on display in front of him. She was practically throwing herself at him but she was also almost certainly feeling the contents of that wine bottle. _That she asked for_ a voice in the back of his head told him. His instincts got the better of him as he grabbed her hips and pulled her so that she was straddling him, one leg on either side of his and his hands solidly placed on her hips, keeping her in place. "What sort of game are you playing, little girl?" he practically growled at her. Veronica's blue eyes grew wide for a moment before she recovered with a dazzling smile.

"Moi? I am playing no games, Sherriff," she rolled her hips into his and he wished he had any idea what was going through that gorgeous head of hers.

"Don't start things you don't want to finish, Mars." He pushed her hips down and rolled his up making sure she knew exactly what she was doing to him. When she let out a barely audible moan at the contact, Lamb could no longer control himself. He attached his mouth to hers, immediately demanding access with his tongue. He may be eleven years her senior, but he was still a man. And if she wanted to tease, she had to know he wasn't going to deal with it. Lamb felt her hands move to the small hairs on the back of his head, pulling him closer to her. She tasted like red wine and soy sauce, but it worked for him. When they finally had to separate to catch their breath he didn't want to open his eyes, partially worried that as soon as he did she'd castrate him.

Veronica leaned back a little, but made no move to get off of him. Lamb took this as a good sign and opened his eyes to look at her. She smiled at him. "Well then…"

Lamb was suddenly nervous again, "Veronica, I…" he gave her a look in his eyes that yelled _I'm Sorry_ though he wasn't really sure what he was apologizing for.

"No need to apologize, Sherriff, we're both adults here. Well, _I'm_ an adult anyway." She winked at him. Wait a minute, Veronica Mars had just winked at him? What the hell was going on? She must be drunk.

He was annoyed again, but he wasn't sure why. Lamb moved Veronica off of his lap and walked into the bathroom. He didn't have to go, he just had to get the hell out of that room. Away from her scent. Away from her, before he did something stupid.

He walked out of the bathroom and yelled "I'm going to bed" down the hallway. Okay, so it was only 10:30 and he was too annoyed to be tired… and he really should be sleeping on the couch. Whatever, fuck it.

He'd started to strip out of what was left of his uniform when he heard Veronica open the door to his bedroom. He was wearing only a pair of boxer briefs when she strode over to him with as much anger as a person can while using crutches. "What the hell was that, Lamb?"

"You're drunk, mars, and I don't feel like dealing with your crap. I don't want to play games."

"I already told you I wasn't playing games, you infuriating, son of a …"

"What the hell else do you call it? You can't stand me, Veronica. You're playing nice because you're stuck here. That's fine. I appreciate that, makes life easier. Well there's a difference between playing nice and whatever the hell you're doing. Quit it."

"What, you don't want me? Oh, Please, Lamb. I can see right through your crap. You want me and you're afraid to admit it."

"I'm afraid of nothing, little girl." She looked angrily over at him and he added, "Except baseball bats."

That broke whatever tension surrounded the room and they both laughed as Lamb pulled on a pair of sweatpants. "Sleep?" Veronica said.

"I'll take the couch," answered Lamb.

"Why? I didn't kick you out of the bed this morning."

Lamb conceded. She wanted to play? He would play. "Oh, you are just _asking_ for trouble."

With that Veronica stepped out of her jeans and hopped into his bed wearing only a pair of underwear and a tank top "So maybe I am," She said as she patted the place on the bed next to her.

Lamb turned off the light before heading after her. _Yeah, she was asking for trouble. _

A/N2: Sorry, I know, the good stuff will be gotten to eventually. LOL


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: This chapter is long. This chapter is also decidedly **NOT** PG.

Chapter 9:

Veronica wasn't exactly sure what the hell she was doing. She was a little tipsy, maybe. But it wasn't affecting her judgment. She'd been stone-cold sober when she had packed the perfume, the fancy underwear. It also didn't help that the majority of her day had been spent fantasizing about waking up with Lamb. About how he should have stayed with her this morning, all the things he should have done. What would have happened if instead of her waist, she woke up with his hands just a tad bit lower. She already knew how she'd respond. Hell, she was so keyed up she had been about ten seconds from blowing him on the couch before his little emotional tirade. She had always wanted him in spite of everything…the wine was just to get her to actually act on it.

In all honesty, she didn't think he'd need quite this much pushing. He was notorious for being a playboy with younger women. Hell, she should have been just his type. She figured he'd jump on the chance. Literally. Then he insinuated that he actually cared about her. Well, that was unexpected. It also made her want him more. At heart she really was a romantic. Well, no, at heart she was a jaded pessimist. A romantic jaded pessimist? Maybe that was it. Lamb had already broke her heart years ago, what the hell was he going to do now that was worse than that?

As he headed to the bed she thought _well, at least he's not going to turn me down._ She shivered. She really didn't know what to expect. In her 21 years she'd slept with 3 boys (she refused to factor Cassidy Casablancas into her calculations). And they all were boys. Logan had really been the only one to write home about. He _knew_ what he was doing; it's why she went back to him for awhile after breaking up with Piz. Poor Piz. And Duncan, Duncan had been a romantic lover, everything was too soft, too controlled for her liking, it was if he was afraid he would break her. Piz was… well, like everything with Piz, the sex lacked gusto. And now, Lamb was stalking towards her like a predator eyeing his prey. This was not a boy. This was a man, and he wanted her. If that kiss in the living room was any indication, this was going to be amazing.

He sat down on the bed next to her, leaned down, and growled into her ear, "Even if you are playing games, little girl, I'm done with them. You're going to be begging for it by the time I'm through with you." He bit her earlobe quickly but roughly. "I am going to do every single depraved thing that has ever come into my mind. You're going to pay for walking around the station in those tiny little skirts and skin tight shirts. For making me so hard behind my desk just thinking about what I would do to you… For making me think I never had a chance. You're going to pay, and you're going to be begging me for more." His little speech had its intended effect. She was practically trembling. He had given her the chills, goosebumps erupted from her skin and she felt her nipples harder as he pulled away. She frowned at the loss of contact but as he stepped into the shadow she was actually nervous. Was he just going to leave her there?

Lamb stepped back into the light from the window holding two men's silk ties from his closet. Veronica felt her eyes go wide and her heart rate speed up. That being said, she was still too turned on by whatever was happening to try to pull away. Lamb un-poetically stripped her of her shirt, tossing it aside like a rag. He roughly grabbed her wrists, binding them together with the ties and said, "I was going to use my handcuffs, ironic, I thought, since you've been in them so many times before. But when I mentioned it at the hospital it seemed like you'd never done this before," he kissed her on the forehead as his hands made the final knot onto the headboard, "and I figured I'd give you something softer." The sweetness mixed with the pure lust in his voice drove her crazy. She could actually feel herself getting wet and she moved to touch him, already forgetting her bindings.

"Sorry Mars, my house, my rules. Unless you're giving up already..." He raised an eyebrow at her, "you want me that bad? I guess I should be flattered."

She only heard about a quarter of what he said because she was so focused on his hands. He was teasing her, his fingers coming so close to where she wanted them to be, yet never getting there. She gasped audibly when he lowered his hot mouth onto one of her bare breasts, biting the nipple gently before moving up her body. He peppered intense kisses up to her neck, his hot breath giving her chills as it passed her ear. He made his way up her jaw until she turned her head so she could capture his mouth again. Lamb pulled back and smirked at her. "No, not until you ask nicely."

Determined not to lose their game she smiled at him and let her head fall back on the pillow while Lamb continued tormenting her body. She was still wearing her underwear and he had yet to focus any attention on the lower part of her body.

If she could think straight she would have assumed it was to build up the tension. If she could think straight she would have realized it was working.

Lamb, having at some point gotten rid of his sweatpants, lowered himself onto her wearing only his boxer-briefs. Their bodies were only a hair's width apart, him still denying her the contact she so desperately craved. Veronica arched her hips up, finally getting the tiniest bit of friction. She saw Lamb smirk at her and he finally lowered his weight onto her and attacking her mouth again. She could barely breath, _but in a good way_, she thought. Lamb tasted way better than he had a right too. Even with the red wine overtones, she could still taste a hint of peppermint from his ever present gum. She rolled her hips again, needing more contact and Lamb pulled back from the kiss.

"I should have known you couldn't play by the rules, Mars."

"I am who I am" she managed to gasp out as he bit down on one of her nipples.

He was slowly and calculatingly moving down her body. Placing random kisses wherever seemed to catch his interest and punctuating them with quick bites whenever he thought she was getting to comfortable. When she could feel his hot breath between her thighs she nearly cooed, instinctively jerking her hips.

"So impatient, Veronica." Dear God, he made her name sound like pure sin, punctuating every syllable. Enough about her name, why wouldn't he touch her? She just wanted pure legitimate contact… _Oh God._ Without warning, Lamb had pushed her underwear aside dipping the tip of a digit inside of her. "And so wet too. Is that all because of me?" He left his finger inside her, unmoving. Now that it was there, it just wasn't enough. She tried to move her hips to get more, anything. But just as she tried to wiggle towards him, Lamb used his free arm to hold her hips in place. She tried to jerk towards him again, but it wasn't doing any good. She had no leverage and he wanted to play. She let out a long frustrated moan as Lamb continued to move his single finger halfway in and back again. It just wasn't enough, she needed "More," she pleaded.

"More of me?" he questioned before pulling away completely. Veronica was about to protest but she opened her eyes to see him pulling her underwear off. She was now completely naked and at the mercy of one Sherriff Don Lamb. Not that she hadn't been at his mercy ever since he'd tied her to the headboard… God, he had barely touched her and she was already more turned on than she'd been in her entire life.

Veronica looked at him as she bit her lip. He made eye contact for a moment and flashed her a genuine (yet smug) smile before dipping his head between her thighs. He continued teasing her, kissing to the left and then to the right of her center. Coming so close she could feel his breath but nothing else. Veronica had never really been one for oral sex. It seemed over rated and it only rarely got her off. With Lamb in control it looked like that was about to change.

She felt his hands hold down her hips to keep them from bucking and she nearly cried out as Lamb's tongue made direct contact with her clit. He was being deliberately soft, the pressure wasn't nearly enough to make her cum. When he replaced his mouth with a thumb doing slow and lazy circles Veronica started to crack. She let loose a cascade of moans and mews and bucked her hips forward with the hope of more pressure.

"It's not nice when people play games, is it?" she heard Lamb say as he impaled her roughly with two fingers, attaching his mouth back to her clit and attacking it roughly with teeth and tongue. She was so close, she could feel her thighs start to tremble and her toes her start to curl and… oh god, she was SO close, just a few seconds more and… She gasped. Lamb had pulled away. Her eyes shot open and she pulled against her restraints. She had been nearly there. Veronica's eyes caught Lamb's and she saw his pupils dilated with lust, she also saw the king of the world smirk he wore.

When he dipped his head back down and resumed his previous slow, calculating pace, Veronica gave in. "Please! More, Don, _please,_ I need more! I need…" she was practically incoherent at this point. She felt him smile against her hip before pushing two fingers into her again. Fast and hard, his tongue ran over her clit. Veronica vision was starting to blur around the edges, even though her eyes were closed. She fought against the restraints binding her arms above her head, instinctively trying to hold Lamb's head between her legs so he couldn't pull away again. She wrapped her calves around him, urging him to continue with her heels as well as a constant stream of moans and heavy breathing. Her knuckles were turning white and her toes were curling. Finally she peaked as Lamb unexpectedly stuck a well lubricated finger up her ass in addition to the ones in her cunt, pumping in time with his tongue. The orgasm was like nothing she had ever felt before. She continued to buck her hips into Lamb's mouth and hands trying to ride the wave of pleasure as long as possible. When she started to come down Lamb removed his mouth but continued to pick up the pace with his hand. He leaned up and kissed her, still assaulting her with his fingers.

Veronica felt herself getting close again. Already? But she had just… when Lamb bit down where her shoulder met her neck it was just too much. She was already over sensitized and her second orgasm hit her hard and fast, but with no less intensity than the first. _ We haven't even gotten to the sex part yet_, Veronica thought as she came down from her second orgasm in minutes, _and this is already the best sex I've ever had._

Hazily, she felt Lamb's hand leave her and even in her oversensitive state, she mewed at the loss. She could feel his warm weight beside her and was completely content. He lazily kissed up her jaw line finding her mouth again and nipping her lower lip with his teeth before fully making contact. "You better not be getting tired, Mars, I'm not done with you yet." Lamb said between fierce kisses and Veronica felt herself getting, if that was even possible, even wetter.

Lamb reached up and untied her from the bedpost. Her hands were still bound together but she could move her arms. She fluttered from nervous excitement as he ground his still covered lower half into her already sensitive sex.

"You seem a little over-dressed for the party." She said. _Wait, had she really just said that?_ Lamb chuckled in response, "apparently I am." He slid off the bed and dropped trou, finally revealing his dick to her. Veronica bit her lip, it was, seriously, the perfect penis. Okay, not that she had a vast amount of experience in the area. But on Lamb… Shit, she wanted to touch it. She wanted to touch him.

"Can I?" Had she just asked his permission? _That was a bad precedent to set_, she thought as he smiled at her and helped her into a kneeling position.

"Be my guest, Mars."

She leaned forward and reached out her still bound hands to stroke him. It wasn't enough, again she wanted more. She opened her mouth and took him in in one swift movement.

"Oh shit, Veronica." She heard Lamb mutter. She smiled wordlessly and kept him in her mouth, taking him as deep as she could and pumping the bottom of the shaft with her hands. When Lamb's hands tangled into her hair, she hadn't expected him to pull away.  
He pushed her down to the bed and flipped her over so she was on her stomach, ass in the air. She felt him move at the edge of the bed, positioning himself at her opening. When he didn't go any further she tried to push her hips back into him to force him to make a move.

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "What do you want Veronica?"

"You." She answered quietly, still trying to push herself back onto him.

She jumped as he smacked her on the ass in a not too unenjoyable way.

"What do you want?" he said again, but louder.

"I want you." she said.

He spanked her lightly again and then reached a hand around underneath her to stimulate her clit. She moaned at the additional contact

"Oh God, Please, Lamb." Veronica said, frantically pushing into his hand. "Fuck me, please. I want you to fuck me."

He paused for the tiniest moment and then said, with a hint of victory in his voice, "Well that's all you needed to say."

He impaled her in one swift motion, making her cry out. He moved agonizingly slow, still trying to torment her. She pushed back again and was rewarded with another quick slap to the ass.

"This is my game, Mars. All you have to do is ask if you want something." As he said this, Lamb had pulled himself almost entirely out of her, thrusting in just a fraction of himself into her.

By this point, Veronica was too far gone to be worried about saving face. "More, please. Harder. Faster. Fuck me, Sherriff."

It appeared that _Sherriff_ had been the magic word, as soon as she said it, Lamb started thrusting away with a new vigor, reaching under her to rub harsh circles on her clit again, quickly making her come apart for the third time. As she came back down, she realized she wanted to see him, wanted to be able to see his face as he came. "Lamb, I want…" she almost couldn't finish her thought because he had solidly grabbed onto her hips and started thrusting wildly.

"You want what, Veronica?" he managed to get out between thrusts.

"I want to see you. I want to touch you."

He thrust extra deep as if to get his point across "you ARE touching me."

"Please?" she begged him and he pulled out only long enough to flip her over before thrusting back in wildly. She tried to wrap her around his neck but he pinned them above her head again. He began wildly kissing her, his tongue demanding access that she happily gave. He pulled his face back and looked directly into his eyes. By the look on his face and the speed of his thrusts, Veronica could tell that he wasn't going to last much longer. So she held the stare and watched as he started to come apart. He reached down between them and pinched her already swollen clit, trying to get her to come over the edge with him. It worked and she came seconds before him. She kept her eyes on his face as he came, saying her name like a prayer in the moment. He collapsed on top of her but still inside of her, peppering her neck and jaw with long, lazy kisses. He reached up and untied her and she lazily ran her hands through the short hairs on the back of his head, utterly satiated.

"That was perfect." He kissed her again, "you were perfect."

"I can't feel my legs," she mumbled in response.

He chuckled against her shoulder. "That's what they all say."

A/N 2: So that's only the second time I've written smut… but it needed to happen, I think. Be kind, if it sucked. Lol.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks for the continued reviews! I really love them. Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than the last few, I wanted to get back to Veronica's P.O.V.

Also, all of these have been un-betaed so sorry if there are any blaring mistakes. lol

Chapter 10:

Lamb woke up smiling for the second time in two days. He couldn't remember the last time that had happened to him. Especially since he wasn't exactly what anyone would refer to as a morning person. He went to roll over and pull Veronica to him but she wasn't there. His eyes shot open and he frantically glanced to her side of the bed. _Her side of the bed? What the hell, she's been here two nights she already has a side of the bed?!_ He decided he'd think about that later.

"Mars?"

"Mornin', Sheriff." He heard her call from the kitchen.

Lamb let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. Also, it worried him that he wasn't holding his breath because he thought she'd run out of protective custody, he was a little irked with himself because he had immediately thought that she had run away from him. Lamb realized that he had kind of hoped that whatever lingering feelings he had for Veronica Mars would just vanish when he finally, well, _had_ her. He figured that fucking Veronica Mars would make him stop wanting her. As he heard her call "Sheriff?" from the kitchen again, he felt his morning wood twitch and realized that that wasn't exactly how it was going to work for him.

_So apparently you still have a hard on for Veronica Mars…_he shook his head because he was trying to be… metaphorical, that was the word. Well, as he looked down, he laughed, okay so he was also being literal.

Veronica limped in to his bedroom, apparently having decided that she no longer needed her crutches. Lamb had been rubbing the sleep out of his eyes when she walked in. He heard her say his name and looked up… he was speechless. Veronica stood there, long blonde hair hanging down her face, naked except for his uniform shirt. He grabbed her hand and pulled her down to his lap. "Where did you go?" Smelling himself on her nearly droving him crazy. He kissed up her neck as he could hear the smile in her voice as she answered, "I required coffee. There's some fresh in the kitchen if you want."

Coffee sounded good, but right now there was really only one thing he could think about. And she was squirming around his already excited lap. He continued kissing her neck and said "I don't know, Mars, I think I'm set with what I want for breakfast right here."

"mmm, No better way to start a Saturday, unless you count a shower."

He frowned as she stood up until he looked at the smirk on her face and saw that her hands were busy unbuttoning his uniform shirt. "Well, Sheriff, you coming?" Lamb was out of bed faster than he cared to admit, not taking time to care about appearing too eager, and followed Veronica to the bathroom.

The shower was on and the water was hot, and Lamb couldn't help but smile as Veronica pushed her tiny frame against him, knocking him back into the cold tile. At the very least she wanted him. He smirked as she ran her fingernails gently across his chest. He certainly wanted her. Whatever, that was enough for now; they'd figure the rest out later. Don Lamb nearly lost it when Veronica sank to her knees on the shower floor in front of him. If any part of his erection had waned before now it was back in full force. Lamb closed his eyes as Veronica petite hands stroked up and down his already hard length. He felt her inhale him into her mouth, using her tongue to lightly tease the underside of his cock. It took all the willpower he had not to wrap his hands in that blonde hair and shove himself deep in her throat.

In the back of his mind he was thankful that she wasn't teasing him the way he had her, though he had no doubt that that would come back to bite him in the ass eventually. Hell, he wasn't entirely unsure he wouldn't wake up handcuffed to the headboard this morning, Veronica smugly looking down at… Lamb lost his train of thought because Veronica's hand tugging on his balls had interrupted him. This was, hands down, the best blow job he'd ever gotten. And he'd been with no shortage of women. Veronica took him deeper and picked up the pace, still keeping up the glorious assault on his balls. He unpoetically moaned her name, along with a few choice expletives. When she pulled back and started to lick a spiral around his dick he looked down at her and said "You know, Mars, it's nice to know that mouth of yours is good for something besides getting on my nerves." He could hear the lust in his own voice and when, half a second later, she let out a throaty laugh, and that happened to be just where his dick was, he came hard. And what do you know if Veronica Mars didn't just swallow the fucking lot of it. That was unexpected. He would have bet money that she'd been a spitter.

Lamb let his head fall back against the tile feeling the hot water run over his completely satiated body. Fucking Veronica Mars had just blown him in his shower on a lazy Saturday morning. Apparently he was a better guy than he thought he was, if Karma was giving him this. Either that or he's going to be in some serious trouble some time soon. As he opened his eyes to a wet, naked Veronica kissing his collarbone, _It's worth it_ he decided. He bent down to kiss her lightly, which quickly turned into making out against the wall of the shower. "I hate to say this, Mars, but you're going to have to give me a few minutes to…uh… recharge before we go again."

"No. That was for you, besides," she smiled at him, "you'll make it up to me later tonight."

He laughed, "So sure I want a repeat performance, are you?"

She rolled her eyes at him as she shampooed her hair. Lamb came up behind her and massaged the sudsy fragrance into her hair before letting her pull away and rinse. He let her conditioner and soap herself while he washed his own body.

"You know, Veronica, this might be the longest shower I've ever taken."

She laughed. "But it was oh so worth it, wasn't it?"

They finished the shower and got dressed for the day without much excitement, except for Lamb blatantly checking out a naked Veronica. Hell, now that he was allowed to stare at her, let alone stare at her naked, he was going to do it. The last few days were going to get him through many a lonely future stakeout.

"Breakfast?" he asked her as he poured them both mugs of black coffee.

"We are being so Ward and June Cleaver it hurts."

"Oh?"

"Well, you making me breakfast… last night and this morning in the shower certainly wasn't very Mayfield." He could have sworn he saw her blush.

"Definitely more Wisteria Lane."

"I see someone isn't watching Prime Time TV for the articles."

He laughed in response as he started making them omelets. Fuck, this felt good. Too bad he couldn't read her at all. So she _seemed_ into this, into him, but this was Veronica Mars. Knowing her she was taping the whole thing as blackmail. A voice in his head told him that she'd be far more upset about this little tête-à-tête getting out than he would be. Unless, of course, Keith Mars found out, because then he'd be shot. Shot dead.

"You're not just sleeping with me so that your father will have an excuse to shoot me and take over the Sheriff's office again, right?"

"Damn, you found me out. It's a good thing I forgot to put the tape in the camcorder." She smirked as she sipped her coffee.

"Then what the hell are you doing?"

"I feel like our roles are switched. Aren't I supposed to be asking you what your intentions are? Funny, I didn't notice you having a vagina while we were in the shower together."

Eh, she was right. What did he care? Well… he did care. "Veronica…" his voice sounded more annoyed than he meant for it to.

"I, Lambipoo," she wrapped her arms around him and pressed a cheek into his chest, "am living in the moment. It's this whole new Veronica Mars things, I'm trying. Being a better me, or something. Going with my gut, not thinking too much."

"You get that from Cosmo?"

"This is weird though."

"No, it's kind of not."

"Right, and _that's _weird."

"Well if you think about it like that."

"There's another way to think about it?"

"I thought you _weren't_ thinking about it. Didn't you say, literally five seconds ago, that you're living in the moment?"

"Right now the moment is telling me that you should add more cheese to my omelet."

"And what do you think the moment will tell you later tonight?" he smirked at her.

"You never can tell."

"I know what the moment is going to tell me."

"Oh?"

"Well, we're probably going to end up at the station. And if we do, the moment is going to tell me to fuck you senseless on the desk in my office… it's what the moment usually tells me whenever I'm there."

"In which case, the moment is telling me that I should probably change into a skirt, just in case your future moment predictions are accurate."

He was sure as shit going to make sure they ended up at the station later tonight. Like hell he was going to miss _this_ opportunity…


	11. Chapter 11

A/N I'm sorry I fail at writing in a timely fashion! Work has been crazy this week.  
More Soon, Scout's Honor!

Veronica didn't know what the hell had gotten into her. Okay, so her relationship with Lamb had never exactly been cut and dry but there certainly wasn't supposed to be sex. Okay, when she was 15 she wanted there to be sex. Hell, if she were being honest with herself at 13 she had wanted there to be sex, when she first got herself off to the thought of her father's new handsome blue-eyed deputy. If she were being more honest with herself she'd admit that she'd had more than a few sex dreams over the years about the blue-eyed devil. And they did _not_ do him justice…_You're getting off point, Veronica. _There was a point here? Oh right. What the hell was she doing?!

Veronica was pulled out of her internal monologue when Lamb pulled over the cruiser in front of Mars Investigations. She mentally chided herself for being more wrapped up in whatever was happening with her and Lamb than at trying to find whoever was attempting to kill her and her father. Veronica looked up fondly at the office. This place was home, almost more so than their apartment. After she had gotten her PI license, they added a second office. Basically, no one manned the secretary station. The desk was there as a place for stuff to be organized. She'd kept trying to get her father to hire Weevil back, but he seemed to like his gig at Hearst. As she had the key in her hand a thought jumped into her head. "You did check this place too, right? We're not going to blow up if I open the door?"

Lamb gave her a '_you're kidding, right' _look as he waved at the deputy that was parked across the street.

She really should stop underestimating him. She thought on it for a minute and realized the bomb that had been attached to her car and silently laughed. Okay, maybe she shouldn't_._ She would say, though, that Lamb was a lot smarter than she had been giving him credit for. Maybe that was her Libido talking... maybe she was confusing smart with utterly fantastic in bed… with the feeling of his hands on… FOCUS VERONICA!

Okay, case files case files… She ruffled through the folders on her father's desk. This one turned up like a bad penny. Ah. The Fitzpatricks. Well… that seems about right. What was it about bad guys? Did they always have to be sneaky? She almost would have preferred someone shooting at her. Okay so she _had_ been shot at before and now that she thought about it. Maybe her previous statement wasn't entirely true. She didn't really like being shot at. But at least when that happened you knew who was coming after you. You knew who to taze. She felt Lamb walk up behind her to look over her shoulder but wasn't prepared when he wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her lightly on the neck before putting on his best no nonsense Sheriff voice.

"What are your leads, Mars?"

The mixture of weirdly sweet Lamb and super serious Lamb brought a smile to her face. She just handed him the folder.

"Well, this certainly wasn't a leap." He smacked his gum and she actually thought it was endearing. Really? Endearing? No, Veronica, that's supposed to be infuriating! Lamb is supposed to be infuriating not… kissing you. How she was supposed to think coherently at all when he tasted like peppermint and was lightly biting her bottom lip she would never know. She pretended to ignore him and turned back to the folder.

"I don't have any proof…yet…but they're certainly the most likely suspects. Everything else we've been working on has been the usual. Cheating spouses, corrupt politicians, bail jumpers. Even the bail jumpers haven't been anything interesting... I'd bet money on the Fitzpatricks. Especially because I _might_ have had an altercation down at the River Styx…"

The look on Lamb's face was a mixture of annoyance and concern and she laughed at it. He looked like he didn't know whether to comfort her or scold her. He went with the latter. "What happened?" he said in an annoyed tone.

"Oh, you know, I was snooping, as I am prone to do, and I maybe have bitten off more than I could chew, which I am NOT prone to do," she flashed a smile at him at that point so he wouldn't argue. Okay, she didn't do it _anymore_… or at least not that often. "And I may or may not have ended up getting threatened with a large rusty pipe in a dark alley. Which really _is_ more the Fitzpatrick's style come to think of it…"

"Focus, Veronica."

"Right, well. That's what happened."

"And this little argument? What was it about?"

"Oh, you know, this and that." He stared her down with one eyebrow raised. Man, he could look tall when he wanted to. "Fine, quit it with the evil eye. Somebody came to us, wanted some dirt on a used car salesman named Flynn Finnerty… I know, right? You'd think that being a used car salesman would be dirt enough. But no, this guy had apparently bought a car, turned out to be a lemon, when he confronted the dealer he got not so subtly threatened for his time. So he wanted some evidence to blackmail him into giving him a new car, I think. Long story short; Mr. Used-Car-  
Salesman happens to be pretty deep in debt to one Liam Fitzpatrick...I was tailing him to get photos of the gambling that I was sure was going on."

"And when you found out it was at the River Styx you didn't think to call the police or bring real backup?" Lamb asked her sounding thoroughly annoyed.

"Au contraire, Sheriff, I brought out the big guns, Daddy-O headed up my security detail, thus explaining why he's in just as deep as me."

"You know, the Sheriff's department has some pretty big guns." By his tone she didn't think he'd realized his insinuation.

"Ah, but Lamb, I didn't realize quite how big your gun was until recently. All these years I thought you were all talk…" she winked at him for extra effect.

He laughed. "Quit trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson, and get on with the case."

"Moi? Try to seduce you? Never. Also, let's count birthdays here, cradle robber. I think you're the Mrs. Robinson here."

"Oh please, you're twenty one, Mars." he leaned in close and whispered in here ear even though there wasn't anyone else in the room, "Now, if I'd acted on it the first time you ever made me hard, walking into the station with one of those tiny little skirts, _then_ I would have been a cradle robber… I'd also be in jail, because you couldn't have been more than fifteen."

She released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "And here I thought the sexual tension was all in my head. That my king sized crush on my father's favorite deputy was a one way street… If only I had known, how different my formative years may have been."

He picked her up quickly and sat her on the desk, stepping his way in between her legs and making her denim skirt ride up. _Maybe changing into a skirt wasn't such a good idea after all_ she thought for a fleeting moment before Lamb gently ran a finger on the underwear between her legs _scratch that, this was a great idea._

He looked at her, his eyes filled with lust and said "We can make up for it now, no more time wasted…" as he starting stroking her clit a little harder above her underwear. She would have answered if she could think about anything except his hand. And now his lips and tongue, conquering hers, his warm weight pushing her down onto the desk, onto case files and pens, and potentially even a stapler. Oh God, Lamb was starting to get her off on her father's desk. This wasn't happening. As she heard herself moan she thought _Okay, so it is happening. Sue me._

"Look at me, Veronica." She opened her eyes as Lamb thrust a finger inside her. Veronica had never been an exhibitionist, hell, besides for an occasional couch or a trip to the shower like this morning, she'd never had sex _not_ in a bed. She'd never even fooled around in a car and now here she was at work getting so close to getting off that it almost wasn't fair. What was he doing to her? As he ran a thumb over her clit she decided she didn't care. She kept her eyes trained on him as she drew close to the edge. He thrust his hand in quicker with one hand, grabbing her breast roughly through her shirt with the other. She could feel her toes start to curl and darkness was starting to ebb into her vision when…

"Lamb?" they heard someone call from the waiting room. Lamb hastily pulled his hand out of her and stood her up. She pulled her skirt down just as Sacks walked into the room. "Hey…" he looked at them confusedly… well, Veronica was standing directly in front of Lamb, hiding the erection that was sure to be visible through his tight blue jeans and Veronica probably looked as raring to go as a $3 hooker. She should know, she'd seen some $3 hookers… "Do you guys need some help looking around?"

Veronica just stood there slack jawed, her body still too confused by the abrupt change in atmosphere to say anything coherent. She heard Lamb answer "No, I think we're set. Veronica is pretty sure it was the Fitzpatrick's. How about you take someone to snoop around that garage they own, see if you can come up with any ingredients for a bomb. Just, don't get caught… we don't have enough for a warrant yet…" Veronica felt herself numbly nod along to whatever Lamb had just said as Sacks turned to leave. She didn't think she'd _ever _been so simultaneously angry and turned on in her entire life. She was waiting to hear the door close to say anything, but as soon as the door clicked she was back on the desk and back on her back. Apparently Lamb wanted to finish what they had started. And now.

"But he could come back…" she heard herself say.

"Then you'd better finish quickly" he growled back as he pushed her underwear aside and attacked her clit with his tongue. It took only seconds before Veronica was back at the edge. Her body eager to get the release it so desperately craved. One or two more, oh god, Lamb had curled his fingers forward as he bit down on her clit, hitting all her spots at once. She came hard, her heels digging into Lamb's back pulling him closer, her hands gripping the side of the desk with white knuckles. Lamb continued to lap at her gently, bringing her down from her high. Her limbs felt heavy and she felt Lamb get up. He stepped between her legs, leaned down, and kissed her. She could taste herself on him and found it incredibly erotic. She could feel his hard length against her underwear that had been put back in place. All she could think as she ground her hips into his was that she wanted him again. Just as she was about to reach for him he pulled away and helped her into a sitting position.

"Not now, Veronica, If we fuck here I'm not so sure I'll be able to go again in _my_ office. And that is one fantasy I am not giving up."

She looked at him confused as she teasingly ran a hand over the bulging spot in his jeans, "What, are you planning on never touching me again after this weekend?" She pouted at him.

He shook his head at her, "I plan on touching you every minute you let me." He rolled his hips into her hand as if to prove his point, "I'm still waiting for you to come to your senses and taze me."

She laughed outright before kissing him. "Don't hold your breath, Sheriff. I haven't had this much fun in years… and a girl can't just throw away entertainment like that."

Lamb smiled and popped some gum into his mouth as he helped her off the desk. He laughed as he looked down… "Well seeing as how this is Keith's desk we might want to clean up… or else he's going to figure out what happened here and I'm going to be missing your favorite part of my anatomy."

"Your eyes?" she asked innocently.

"Sure, Veronica, my _eyes_," he laughed.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N Sorry about the delay, work has been crazy. Good news is I kind of wrote the next chapter before I wrote this one, so that should be up faster, lol. Enjoy!

A/N2: This is completely un-betaed so sorry if there are any blaring mistakes!

.

* * *

Lamb watched Veronica out of the corner of his peripheral vision as they drove to lunch. She was even willing to be seen out with him in public, apparently, that was a good sign. She was also smiling to herself as she looked out the window. Considering that she and her father were still technically murder targets, the fact that she was smiling with him… he was taking it as a good sign.

.

Fuck pretense, he was obviously into her, and she obviously knew. What does it matter at this point? She had even convinced him to go get sushi for lunch. Raw fish? Sounds delicious…

.

Lamb shook his head. Hell, who was he kidding? He'd eat a live scorpion if it meant she'd smile at him. A real smile, like the one she had now, not that tight lipped, fake smirk she'd been fond of for the last few years. He'd do whatever she wanted if he could be the cause of that smile.

.

Without thinking, Lamb reached over and grabbed Veronica's hand as they were driving. She released it for a moment, but only to interlock her fingers with his. He squeezed her hand and smiled to himself as he continued driving. He knew that if he looked to his right she'd be watching him, probably trying to analyze what was going through his head. He just lifted their joined hands to his mouth and kissed the back of her hand softly. _Shit, I'm going to have to watch out or…_

_.  
_

"Be careful, Sheriff, or I'm going to start thinking you like having me around."

.

He didn't answer. He didn't have to and they rode the rest of the way into town in relative silence, still interlocking hands. He pulled up to a spot in front of the sushi place and Lamb chuckled to himself as he got out of the car. _Don Lamb and Veronica Mars, who would have…_

_.  
_

"Well hello Veronica. Sheriff." Eh, shit, he knew that voice. Lamb looked up and saw Logan Echolls sitting on the fucking patio of the restaurant they were about to eat at. He could think of no better way to ruin what had started out as a fantastic day.

.

Lamb didn't answer him, he just watched as Veronica walked over and hugged Logan lightly. Then Lamb's eyes fell on the blonde girl standing next to them. She looked familiar. Why? He hadn't seen her recently… had he sleptwith her? He thought on that for a second... No, that wasn't it. Then why the hell did she look so familiar? Lamb heard Veronica say "Hannah" and his mind clicked on. Didn't her father try to frame Echolls for murder? Not that, at the time, Lamb wasn't entirely sure Logan hadn't done it… but it seemed that in light of other evidence... _Inconsequential, Don_ he told himself.

.

"Echolls" he heard himself say as he nodded his head towards the annoying redhead. "Echolls's date" he added, nodding a second time in the direction of the blonde. Veronica elbowed him in the ribs for that one. "What?" he asked as he held his hands up innocently at her.

.

She rolled her eyes and he smiled.

.

Lamb looked over at Logan just in time to see him look at Veronica with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. After a quick glace to his right he decided that Veronica hadn't noticed Logan's reaction. He hadn't to say it, but Lamb was still too damn unsure about whatever was going on between he and Veronica to be positive that one well placed snide comment from Lover Boy Echolls wouldn't make it self-combust. He decided to go on the offense.

.

"All right, Mars, you got me here, now let's go inside and order some uncooked seafood!" he added a handclap to round out his mock enthusiasm. He was pretty pleased with the effect as he turned to walk into the restaurant when he heard Echolls speak again.

.

"Hate to tell you this, Sheriff, but the dining room was full when we got here and it doesn't look like anyone has left." Lamb swore under his breath but with a quick look through the glass he realized that Logan was right. _Shit_. "Fortunately for you," Logan motioned over their half eaten meal, "this table is just the right size for four." _No. Fucking. Way._

.

Lamb was about ready to make a stand when Veronica looked at him awkwardly and bit her lip. Well screw that, he wasn't going to be shunned out of a restaurant just because Veronica Mars's ex-boyfriend wanted to play games. He was going to eat his raw fish, damnit.

.

He felt himself smirk, "Why how polite. Mommy and Daddy must have raised you right," he pulled out a chair and sat before he realized what he said. He looked over at Veronica who was shaking her head like she was remembering who she was with. _Oh, fuck. Make good, Don, make good… Um? _"Sorry, Echolls, force of habit, you know?" He held out his hand to shake it hoping his half assed apology would be good enough for Veronica. Logan shook his hand, grabbing it a little too hard, and said, "We'll call it even for that time I put a brick through your apartment window."

.

"That was you?"

.

"Ah, well, I was young and naïve." Lamb contemplated arresting him when Logan added in his best movie narrator voice "It was another time then? We were both different people. It was the best of times…it was the worst of times?"

.

Lamb couldn't help but laugh. "And look at us now, playing nice."

.

Somewhere in the middle of this Veronica had sat down next to him, she interjected with, "And let's keep it that way, shall we boys? Just because we're outside there's no reason to take it outside. Besides, Logan knows where you sleep, don't make him threaten any police officers."

.

"Yes, she gave me the grand tour," Logan said. "And speaking of which, just how much ARE they paying you? A whole one bedroom apartment?! However do you afford such a palace?"

.

Lamb shook his head and answered "Hey now trust-fund boy, you're outnumbered here. You're the only one sitting on a multi-million dollar bank account." Actually, he didn't know about Hannah, "Unless you live in Barbie's dreamhouse…"

.

Hannah smiled, "Nope, I live in a glorified dorm room. Though I plan on spending the majority of my time in the Neptune Grand." She smiled and leaned into Logan's shoulder. Lamb mentally scolded himself for thinking it was sweet. _They're going to give me diabetes if they keep this up…_

.

Just then Veronica piped in, "Right, well why don't we keep this hippie love-fest to a minimum," she looked at him, "We'll get ours to go, deal?"

.

He smirked at her, "Yeah, we have all those case files to go over on my desk. Sorry, I meant in my office."

.

Lamb could have sworn that he saw something wanton fill her eyes before she narrowed them threateningly and glared at him.

.

Logan coughed loudly to get their attention and Lamb made a show of crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. As Veronica filled out some sort of …_what the hell is that? A Sushi order form? _ She asked Hannah what she was studying at school. Lamb zoned out from the small talk and instead thought about what he was going to do to Veronica later.

.

He couldn't decide if he wanted to have sex before or after lunch. He couldn't imagine that uncooked fish kept very long, but he was already practically hard in his jeans. _The fish could wait_, he decided, as he thought about pushing her forward on the desk. Maybe he'd do her from behind. He'd thought about it like that before; pushing that tight little skirt up to her waist and pounding her into his desk as he palmed her perfect little breasts. Or maybe he'd sit in his chair and make her ride him. He'd get to see her face as he fucked her like he'd wanted to for years now. Or he could bring her into the interrogation room, nah best save that for…

.

"Hellllooooo, Lamb?" Veronica was snapping her fingers in front of his face.

.

Logan added "Maybe he had a stroke."

.

"Eh, sorry, I was thinking about some…affairs I have to get at the station."

.

"Mhmm…" Logan smirked at him like he knew exactly what had been going through his head seconds earlier.

.

Lamb stood up "Right well, I'm going to go pay…"

.

"Ah, and our great public defender picks up the tab."

.

Veronica answered, "I'm in protective custody; it's a billable expense."

.

Logan prompted "and the bottle of red wine that was in his hands as I left the other day? Billable as well?"

.

Lamb ignored the fact that Logan was looking at him accusingly and turned to Veronica. "Stay here, all right, I'll be back in a bit."

.

"Relax, Sheriff, no one is going to attack her on the street in broad daylight."

.

"Famous last words," muttered Veronica.

.

"_I smell bread_" interjected Lamb. They all looked at him like he'd sprouted an extra head. "_Those_ are famous last words. _I smell bread…" _he looked at them a little awkwardly and tried to recover, "M.A.S.H. anybody?"

.

It was, surprisingly, Logan who gave him an out. "I've always been more of an _E tu Brute_ man, myself. You have to respect the classics."

.

Lamb left them talking at the table and headed in to pick up their order and pay the bill, which was NOT a billable expense… but for Veronica Mars he'd pay… _Holy shit $64.95? Those chopsticks better be plated in gold…_

.

* * *

.

Veronica sat at the table and made a face, she knew what was coming.

.

"So it _finally_ came to a head, I see?"

.

"What are you yapping on about?"

.

"You and Deputy Do-Right, looking at you crazy kids almost makes me wish I had a girl of my own to… Oh Hey!" he wrapped an arm around Hannah, "What do you know I _do_ have of a girl of my own to..." Hannah elbowed him in the rips and he amended his former speech to "act like a perfect gentlemen around."

.

Veronica raised her eyebrows and smiled at him. She had almost forgotten how good Hannah was for him. Granted the first time he'd been using her to get to her father for awhile, but only in the beginning. She brought out the best in him, everyone deserved that.

.

"Well as much as I love our share sessions, I have to pee, I'll be right back." She picked up her bag and headed for the far side of the restaurant as Hannah caught up with her.

.

"Hi!"

.

Veronica was a little startled by the fact that Hannah was suddenly at her side but she recovered quickly enough. "Hi yourself. What's…up?"

.

"So you and the Sheriff? Huh?"

.

"Yeah…no offense, Hannah, I'm not a big… share and hug it out sort of girl?"

.

Hannah seemed undeterred, "Well you're going to have to work on that Veronica, you're one of the only girls I know here and I'm going to need some girl time to talk about Logan. Unless that's weird!" Hannah's hand flew to her mouth, "Oh god that's probably weird! You guys dated and all! Repeatedly! Oh no, is it weird that we're even talking. You don't hate me do you!?"

.

Veronica had forgotten that someone that little could talk so fast. She also thought for a fleeting second that Hannah had probably never uttered a swear in her entire life. "Breathhhh, Hannah. Okay? I'm very happy for you and Logan, I promise. And you can talk to me about whatever, whenever, but for the really girly stuff…" A light went off in Veronica's head, "Remind me to introduce you to Parker. I think you two will get along just great…"

.

* * *

.

Lamb walked back to the table still thinking about all the things he was going to do to Veronica when he got her back to the station or back to his apartment… hell maybe even a pit stop in the cruiser. He wasn't going to waste her now that he had… Where the hell was she?

.

Lamb slammed the sushi down on one of the chairs. "Echolls, where is she?" He looked around frantically for half a second before he realized that Hannah was gone too. Light bulb. "Ah… bathroom?"

.

"Bathroom." Logan confirmed

.

"What is it about chicks going to the bathroom together?"

.

"I used to have a theory that their clothes were so tight they needed someone to help them get them off."

.

Lamb answered without thinking, "Nah that skirt is easy to get off…I mean…"

.

Logan looked at Lamb seriously and after an awkward 30 second pause, "Treat her right, man."

.

"I don't know what you're…"

.

"No, she's special, okay? She deserves… well, I'd say she deserves someone better than you, but you seem to make her smile so. Just… she's special."

.

Lamb got defensive, "Look, I've known her for a long time…"

.

Logan cut him off, "Yeah, and take it from the man who got it all wrong with her…multiple times… She's special. You take care of her."

.

There was an unsaid _or else_ at the end. But Lamb approved more than he was annoyed. He knew how special she was and he was happy that for once in her life she seemed to have people around her that realized it too.

.

Lamb saw Veronica walking towards him looking slightly awkward, he almost couldn't figure out why until he saw her look uncomfortably at Hannah's arm that was hooked tightly through one of Veronica's. He laughed at the sight and looked over at Echolls, who was too busy smiling at Hannah… Veronica unchained her arm from Hannah's and walked over towards Lamb. He smiled at her and thought fleetingly about how Logan and Hannah looked like the stereotype of "Young Love" and he and Veronica looked like the stereotype of nothing. His girl was just as jaded as him. It was why they worked. _Your girl? _He smiled internally in spite of himself and mentally added, _Don't get ahead of yourself, Donnie. You still haven't done anything to deserve this._

.

Lamb watched Logan slip a crisp hundred under the soy sauce bottle, not even bothering to wait for his check and they all walked towards the street together. Logan shook Lamb's hand with a little too much force again, probably a warning, and the other couple walked across the street to get into Logan's truck.

.

"Hey, where's the Sushi?" asked Veronica, pulling Lamb out of his reverie.

.

"Oh, Crap, I left it at the table. I'll be right back."

.

And he left her there, right out in the open, alone, by the cruiser as he jogged back to the patio to get the take-out bag. Hell, he could still see her. He smiled as he watched her lean against his police car. He smiled until he saw the van pull around the corner with the side open. _Fuck!_ He dropped the bag and ran towards her, but was still another ten yards away when a masked face pointed a gun at her. "VERONICA, GET DOWN!" he yelled and she did. She dropped to the pavement as soon as she saw what was coming, and there was a bullet hole in the door right where she'd been standing seconds beforehand.

.

He could hear people screaming in the fringes and he could feel his heart beating through his throat. He needed to get her safe. His gun was in his hand and he fired at the van. The man fired back and his third shot found its intended target. Lamb fell to his knees as he saw Logan's truck collide with the driver's side of the van, sending the shooter rolling out of the door and into the street. He saw Logan get out, pull away the gun, and kick the already limp body, hard

.

Wait that was his job, why wasn't he getting…oh, right. Light was getting dim along the edges and he felt like a hot poker was being pushed into his chest…

.

* * *

.

Veronica felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Had they really just tried to attack her in the middle of the day? She was going to make a joke later about that with…LAMB!

.

"No! Lamb?!" Veronica ran towards him as he fell forwards onto the pavement, gun still in hand. "LOGAN CALL AN AMBULANCE."

.

She vaguely heard a "I can already hear the sirens" reply. But she was too focused on the usually sharp blue eyes that were not staring glossily at her.

.

"Lamb, please, no." She put her hand on the wound and heard him moan in pain. "Please, Lamb! I just got you back." She was crying now, leaning against his chest and sobbing into his ear. "You can't leave me, not now. I just got you back." She was clinging on so hard that she couldn't even remember to put pressure on the wound. "Everybody leaves, not you, you have to stay! You're not allowed to leave! Don, please." She knew she was covered in blood and she didn't care. She felt someone pull her back and realized it was Logan, the EMTs were running towards the scene.

.

She turned sobbing and Hannah and Logan pulled her into a tight hug. She numbly thought that 15 minutes ago she was denying that anything was happening between her and Lamb and now all she could do was incoherently mumble that he's not allowed to leave her too.

.

She focused on what was happening as the EMT told her the bullet had gone right through, as long as they could stop the bleeding he would be fine. They just had to get him to the hospital. She could have cried with relief, but since she was still crying from fright, she seriously doubted anyone would have noticed the difference.

.

Sacks ran over to them, "Veronica!? What happened?!" She looked at him blankly, relieved when Logan pulled him over and explained. Sacks said the driver and gunman had both been Fitzpatrick's… it was enough to bring everyone that might be involved in, Veronica thought… the attempted murder of law enforcement wasn't anything to be taken lightly. Veronica tried to think about a lot in that few seconds until she heard Lamb mutter her name from the gurney.

.

"Lamb?!" She kissed him and squeezed his hand.

.

She laughed as she heard him choke out, "Be careful, Mars, or I'm going to start to think that you like having me around…"

.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Sorry for the delay! I don't even have a good excuse this time, I just suck at writing promptly. 3

* * *

Chapter 13

* * *

Veronica waited in her father's room for word on Lamb, for word on the shooter, for word on anything. Okay, and by "waited" she may have meant "paced." For the last two hours, she paced.

She could feel Keith's eyes on her as she walked back and forth over the floor.

"Okay, honey, I really can't afford a new hospital room floor added to my bill because you wore out the tile. Sit down, Veronica."

She looked over at him with teary eyes, "I can't; it's my fault!"

"What's your fault?"

"All of it! If it weren't for me our car wouldn't have gotten blown up, you wouldn't have almost died, Lamb wouldn't have…" she choked a soft sob as she sat down on the side her father's bed.

After what had to have been hours, Sack's walked into the room, looking a little worse for the wear. "Hey Keith, Veronica." He nodded towards both of them before continuing, "We caught the Fitzpatrick's. I don't know how they plan to weasel their way out of this one, we've got them cold on all three sets of attempted murder charges, plus shooting a sheriff doesn't exactly make you very popular in any part of the law…"

"You said three counts of _attempted_ murder so…"

"The Sherriff is fine, Veronica," if she were less upset she probably would have seen the little smirk under his mustache. That being said, Keith didn't miss it. He also didn't miss Veronica visibly relax in her chair. What in the world was going on with his daughter and the sheriff? Strike that, he didn't want to know. He shook his head and muttered something about Stockholm syndrome that Veronica missed. "Anyway, whenever the doctor's give you the okay, Keith, you can go back home. And Veronica, you're out of protected custody, not that Lamb is going to be much use protecting, he got shot through the shoulder."

Veronica was walking towards the door before she even realized she was on her feet, "What room is he in?"

"Veronica, he's still asleep…" he stammered a bit at the glare she gave him "uh, room 307, ICU"

Veronica practically flew out the doorway.

* * *

Keith stared after his daughter and rhetorically asked "What the hell has gotten into her?" When Sacks choked on a coughed and looked around awkwardly Keith regretted his choice of words.

* * *

Veronica knew he was okay; it wasn't like Sacks was going to lie to her. Plus, Lamb had smiled at her, he's talked to her, hell, he'd kissed her after he was shot. No, she needed to see. After Batando hit him with the bat she'd snuck into the hospital to see him. Just to make sure he was alive. At least she could justify it this time… at least this time she wouldn't need to wear a wig.

Veronica let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding when she walked into his hospital room and saw that he was still breathing. He still looked a little pale, but he'd lost a lot of blood. She walked towards him and reached out to touch his face. He groaned a little at the contact and she smiled when he opened his eyes.

"Hey there, Deputy."

"Mars?"

She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead.

"… wasn't a dream?" Lamb mumbled groggily.

"You getting shot? No, Sherriff, that part happened."

"…no the other stuff…the you stuff." He must have been on a buttload of pain killers because he wasn't making ANY sense…

"The me…?" Veronica realized _of course, he thinks it's all a dream. Well, it's not like he knows I've been falling for him ever since he believed us about Meg's sister… _"No, Deputy, it wasn't a dream."

Veronica bent down and kissed him. She tried to put a lot into that kiss. She wanted him to know that she forgave him, she wanted him to know that she couldn't lose him again, she wanted him to know the reason it had never worked with any of her boyfriends… she wanted him to… keep kissing her like that… Wait a second, when had she gotten on top of him? Veronica found herself in Lamb's hospital bed, being thoroughly (if groggily) kissed. She let go of his mouth to gasp when he rolled his hips up into hers. She felt him nip at her ear before whispering into it, "Feel that, Veronica? Always for you. Even when I thought it was a dream, I was still hard at the thought of you."

At that moment Veronica didn't care that they'd just had sex last night, or that they were in the hospital, she wanted him. She wanted, somehow, to prove to him that this wasn't a dream. She wanted to show Lamb that she wanted this just as bad as he did. She sat up and rolled off of him, her head clearing long enough to realize that was necessary. She walked to the door, noticing Lamb's good arm reaching out for her to come back, she turned back towards him and leaned into the door until it was shut and locked. She looked back at her Sherriff _her Sherriff, seriously Veronica? While technically true as a citizen of Neptune, you KNOW that's not what you meant…_ She held his eyes in hers and she reached down to unbutton her skirt. She pulled down her skirt and her underwear painstakingly slow and stepped out of them when they reached the floor. She pulled her shirt over her head, letting her hair fall against her back.

Veronica Mars stood naked, in broad daylight, in a hospital room with Don Lamb… and it didn't faze her in the least. She could feel his eyes survey her, take in every detail in case this really was a dream. She heard his breath hitch as she pulled down the hospital blanket and gently lifted his hospital gown up his belly until she finally paid her attention where she wanted to. She enveloped his cock with her mouth until he was as hard as she'd ever seen a man be. She licked the underside and pumped a few times until she smiled when she heard him moan… then she let go.

Veronica looked up towards his face again and saw fire in those gorgeous blue eyes. He wanted her, but he was still too afraid to break the spell, so he stayed still, he didn't even manage a word until she lowered herself down on top of him. She closed her eyes at the sensation. She was so wet for him and right now she wanted him to know. This morning she'd still been a little embarrassed by her body's responses, but not now. As Veronica slowly started to rock back and forth she wanted him to know exactly what he did to her and exactly how he made her feel. Maybe then he would know that this wasn't a dream.

She bent down to kiss him lightly on the mouth before sitting back up straight and impaling herself on him. She felt his good hand grab hers and hold tightly as he thrust his hips up hitting her at exactly the right angle that she felt herself coming to the edge. Veronica reached down with the hand that wasn't grasping Lamb's and rubbed small circles over her clit. When she heard Lamb whisper, "Please, Veronica, come for me, baby" she did just that, Veronica threw her head back and wished she could cry out. Nothing made her want to scream so much as having Don Lamb inside her. As she came slowly back down from her orgasm, Veronica released Lamb's hand and put her arms on the mattress above his shoulders, bending down and kissing him softly, she started rocking back and forth again. As she moved her hips faster, the glorious friction between them started rubbing on her over sensitized clit and she came apart around him for the second time as he spilled himself inside her. She kissed him hard again, still slowly rocking her hips, as her body pulled everything it could from his.

Veronica realized, as she pulled her face back to look at his, that she had absolutely just made love to one Sherriff Don Lamb. She knew she should be freaking out but instead she just kissed him again and laughed as he said "Careful Mars, or I might start to think you like having me around."

Veronica got dressed and made small talk. When she moved to open the door again she heard him say "Mars, wait. Promise me something…" her breath caught as he continued "Promise me you'll give up on the god damned sushi now."

Veronica genuinely laughed at him as she put her hands on her hips, "What now, Deputy Don, you think something as simple as her date getting shot is going to stop a girl's cravings? No wonder you've been so unsuccessful in your relationships. You obviously know nothing about women."

He smiled and sleepily arched an eyebrow at her, "well good thing I have you here to teach me then, Mars."

"Good thing, Sherriff."

TO BE CONTINUED


	14. Author's Note

Hey guys, sorry! I've had a killer case of writer's block coupled with a case of mono. I've been pretty useless. Don't worry, though, the story isn't abandoned, I'm going to finish it Hopefully soon. Just, sorry for the delay!


	15. Chapter 14

A/N OH GOD HI FROM 4 MONTHS INTO THE FUTURE! Yeah, so, sorry about that! I promise it won't be another 4 months before the next update. I got into grad school and have been busy trying to get everything settled with that (Plus I went to Europe for 3 weeks). BUT I SHOULD BE BACK TO WRITING RELATIVELY PROMPTLY AGAIN SOON!

Chapter 14

As Lamb watched Veronica leave his room he smirked to himself and started mentally writing a letter _Dear Penthouse…_before promptly falling back into a well-deserved slumber.

Veronica left the hospital with her dad, she concentrated way too hard on driving, deliberately ignoring the stare Keith had been giving her since she sat him in the car.

"Veronica."

She ignored him and turned on the radio extra loud and miming that she couldn't hear him because of the music.

"I'M GOING TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THIS! I'LL CORNER YOU IN THE APARTMENT IF I HAVE TO!" he yelled over the sound of the stereo.

Veronica weighed the options to herself… have this conversation with her dad _now_… or stuck in that tiny little apartment where she'd be guilted not to leave… now…later? Now. Definitely now. She sighed heavily and reached over to turn off the radio… _Hell, at least this way I'll be too concentrated on driving to see his disappointed dad face. _

Seconds of silence ticked by while Veronica tried to figure out how to explain what happened between her and Lamb. _Well you see Dad, your former deputy (current arch-nemesis) bedded me this weekend… thoroughly…_oh yeah, this was going to go over REALLY well.

"So you and Lamb…"

"It's not what you think, Dad…"

"Really, because I think you've fallen back in on the crush you had when you were 13, honestly Veronica I thought you had better taste than that."

"You say that about all my boyfriends."

"BOYFRIEND?" she heard her father choke on himself.

_Oops, _thought Veronica. _I didn't mean to say that…_

"Would you rather have it been a one night stand?"

"BOYFRIEND?" Her father was stammering at her, apparently overlooking the 'one night stand' comment… if she'd looked over to her right she probably would have seen that vein throbbing. You know the one, every dad has it, his was just more prominent thanks too his little bald head.

"Not that we've discussed it or anything" Veronica frowned, realizing what she said was true.

"BOYFRIEND?" His pitch was getting progressively higher. "Veronica, have you lost your mind?"

"Even you said he seemed like a better man lately. You said you were starting to trust him."

"Yeah, starting to trust him to arrest the right people, maybe! Not starting to trust him with my daughter." At that point Keith started mumbling under his breath. But Veronica winced at the number of times he said _kill him_, _gun_, and _dead man._

They arrived at the apartment and before Veronica turned off the car she looked at her father, "Calm down, Papa Bear. I'm a big girl after all."

He looked at her very seriously and said "You'll always be my little girl."

She smiled and said "And you'll always be the number one guy in my life… well, besides Back-Up, of course."

"Of Course." He smiled at her, albeit tensely, but what did she expect. In his eyes she'd pretty much told him she'd sold her soul to the blue-eyed devil.

Veronica helped her dad out of the car and up the stairs to their apartment where she proceeded to pretend to feel bad about her little tête-à-tête with Don Lamb, though she couldn't really justify feeling bad about something that made her feel so good. Okay, so maybe she was waiting for the other shoe to drop… but not really. Because with them, both shoes had dropped long ago, how were they going to hurt each other worse than they already had?

Regardless she got her dad everything he asked for, except a beer since that was prohibited by his doctor as the nurse who had already called twice since he'd been home (hmmm, how suspect) had reminded him.

"So, Father Dearest… Speaking of nefarious love affairs, what do you want to tell me about this nurse, Gloria? She could see her father blush under the scrutiny of her raised eyebrows." (She could always tell when he was _really_ embarrassed because the tips of his ears got red.) "Unless it's now the SOP of hospitals to have their nurses call ALL their handsome and dashing patients..." He didn't answer and a few seconds later the doorbell rang, Veronica went to answer it. Standing at the door was a pretty little middle-aged nurse with dark red hair. Veronica smacked a smile on her lips and said "Well speak of the devil!"

She walked over to give her father a kiss on the head and turned to the nurse. She said "You two play nice now, and don't keep him up too late he's had a trying couple of days." Of course her tone of voice was that of a soccer mom giving instructions for a play date.

"Hey, where are you going?" Keith called after her.

"Headed to Logan's, I want to make sure he knows everything turned out all right."

Keith furrowed his brow in confusion, "Wait… Logan Echolls is actually _worried_ about the well-being of this city's thin line of blue?"

"Logan concern extends to anything and everything _I'm_ concerned about. You should follow suit Daddy-O."

Keith mouthed to say more but Veronica shut the door and cut him off. She smiled to herself as she walked down to her car. Okay so, he hadn't taken the news well, per se, but he also hadn't forbade her from seeing Lamb. Not that at twenty-one he had much authority over her… but he still would have tried to tell her what to do if he'd really been _that_ upset. So that was good news, right?

Maybe that nurse was having a good effect on him. She'd been bringing him extra ice chips for his water since he got there and had been to check on him atleast 4 times every visit Veronica had. The fact that they both had a crush was obvious… also, the minute she'd gotten her laptop back, she'd run a background check. The woman was divorced, no children, excellent credit.

She stopped midstride… had she really run a background check on her dad's love interest? She laughed out loud, _Well, I guess I can't blame him for being overbearing… or maybe he can't blame me… Where the hell does he think I learned it from?_

"Veronica?" Logan answered the door and pulled her into a big hug. "My God, we were so worried!"

She felt herself get passed off to Hannah for a hug and then to… what the hell "Dick?"

"What, is it not just Hug Ronnie Day? Okay, sorry, sorry, I'll go back to my room." And he did and left the other three slightly giggling over his sudden appearance.

"Okay, so I'll take the fact that you're here and laughing to be a good sign?" asked Logan.

"Lamb is fine, surgery took longer than I would have liked, but it went well. AND my dad got discharged from the hospital."

"You left him home alone?"

"Ah, no. That pretty little red haired nurse I told you about is there taking care of him."

Logan waggled his eyebrows in a ridiculous and lewd way that had Hannah elbowing him in the ribs.

They all moved over to the couch and Logan looked at her seriously "Be careful with him, Veronica, I don't want him to hurt you?"

She feigned stupidity, "Pops? I think he's done pretty well so far."

"You know just who I'm talking about."

"I know Logan, but it actually feels… I don't know… right. It's so easy it's almost ridiculous. Well, barring the him getting shot protecting me bit… that wasn't so good."

"And you're sure you don't have… I don't know… Stockholm syndrome or something."

Hannah smacked him playfully on the arm and said to her, "I'm really happy you found someone Veronica."

She looked at them both and said, "Guys, its new… it's just… I don't know yet"

"Oh come on Veronica, we both know that you and our fine Sherriff have always played for keeps. There's no going half way with you two. You've started and now it's going to continue. And from what I can tell from my last two encounters with him, you've already got him wrapped around your little finger."

Veronica smiled at that and sat back down to watch TV.

Lamb woke up as the door to his hospital room opened. He was expecting Sacks… or maybe Veronica again. Okay he was _hoping_ for Veronica. What he was neither hoping for nor expecting was Keith Mars limping in to the room supported by one of the nursing staff.

"Uh… Hi Keith."

"How are you feeling, Don?" he asked a little too coolly for the look on his face.

The exchange was already starting to creep Lamb out. "I've had better days… but a bullet to the shoulder is no baseball bat to the head… so I'm doing all right." He swallowed hard, "How are you?"

"Oh you know, I'd be better if I knew EXACTLY WHAT YOUR INTENTIONS WITH MY DAUGHTER WERE!"

Well shit. Lamb supposed he was lucky Keith hadn't pulled a gun on him.

"Keith, I…"

"You don't have anything to say for yourself, do you? SHE'S TEN YEARS YOUNGER THAN YOU!"

"I care about Veronica a lot, Keith. You two are the only family I ever had…" Don had never felt more like a young boy being scolded. Specifically since as a young boy he'd only been beaten, never scolded.

"Oh and that worked out so well for us last time, look I don't know how you managed to get her to trust you again but if you screw this up, If you screw _her_ up, so help me God I will kill you and make it look like an accident. No one will miss you. Hell, they'll probably even give me your job."

"She'll miss me." And as soon as Lamb said the words he realized he meant them. Veronica had told him he wasn't allowed to leave. Whatever she was playing at with him really was more than just a game.

Lamb met Keith's eyes and assured him "I'm not going to screw this up, Keith. She's the only one that's ever really mattered."

Keith Mars could always read him like a God Damned book and apparently he still could. The older man just stared at him for a good minute before nodding like he was resigning himself to something and turning to walk back out of his room.

_Shit, _thought Lamb. _What did I just get myself into? And why the hell don't I want to run away from it?_


	16. Chapter 15

A/N: I've got no real excuses for my lack of timeliness except that I'm a grad student now, so I write for a living. It's hard to find time to write for funsies.

Don got to come home today. And Veronica was more than excited. They'd kept him there a week, though no one was entirely sure why. They figured the Neptune Sheriff's Department was just trying to cover their asses. He'd almost died twice on the job now. That's some serious payoff… hmm…or maybe Sack's just liked being in charge. Regardless, she had big plans tonight.

The redheaded nurse had taken up residence in her and her dad's apartment the last few days, so Veronica had been spending most of her free time in Lamb's hospital room. Not that she had much free time. It was the last few weeks of her last semester of college after all; things in her life were tense.

"Things" being anything at all besides what was happening between her and Lamb. It was just so … well, easy between them.

Inside Veronica kept waiting for it to get more complicated, but it never did. It kept getting easier, Lamb kept getting sweeter, and the sex kept getting steamier.

Really… what more could a girl ask for.

So here she sat. Sacks went to pick him up. She knew he was itching to get out of that hospital room and seemed to believe her (though he pouted a little) when she told him she had class.

Did she? Of course not. She was scheming with the poor Sheriff in mind. Not that there was anything particularly unusual about that. But she figured he'd like this quite a bit more than how she used to scheme…

Veronica's thoughts were cut short when she saw Sack's patrol car pull up in front of Lamb's apartment. She heard a muffled "I'll be fine, don't worry about it, go on home" and saw Sack's pull away.

_Excellent_ she thought. _Showtime._

Don walked into his apartment, happy that Sack's had listened to him and left him alone. He figured Veronica would be there already, hoping she'd have managed to get out of class early.

Tonight was going to be his first chance to hold her through the night since their first time together and he was NOT going to give that up. Screw his damn shoulder. He'd take some ibuprofen.

As he started unbuttoning his shirt, something on his kitchen counter caught his eye. A bottle of bourbon next to a note that said "You've had a tough week, Copper, have a drink and wait for me – V."

Lamb smiled, and threw his now discarded shirt on his chair. He poured himself a glass and sat down to wait. His little blonde pixie had something up her sleeve.

Veronica checked her hair in the mirror. She had curled it before she came over and wanted to make sure it still looked right. She painted her lips a bright red, put on her hat (a gray beret) and stepped out of her car.

Veronica smiled as she looked down at herself. She had a knee length trench coat cinched at the waist, covering a pair of thigh highs with a seam down the back and a pair of peep-toe heels. By the time she got to Lamb's door her body was already humming. _Best. Plan. Ever._

Veronica closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts before she knocked frantically on Lamb's door. (She knew it was unlocked. Also, she had a key, but that wasn't the point of the game).

"Come in" she heard softly from the other side of the door.

_Game time!_

"Sheriff you've got to help me, please!"

Lamb didn't say anything. He just looked at her with one eyebrow raised looking a little confused.

"Don't you hear me copper, I said I need your help."

"Copper?"

"What are you deaf, man? You're a dick, ain't you? Police officer?"

Lamb decided to play along. He loved 30's cop movies and she knew it.

"I might be, depends on who is asking."

"Name's Veronica Mars. P.I."

"You obviously mean you're the secretary of some hotshot, don't you? If we had a woman investigator around here I sure would have heard about it. I'm in charge in this town."

"Came in from Chicago following a lead. I need your help to bring the greaseball in before a snitch in your office puts a kibache on the whole thing."

Lamb laughed to himself, she was going all in on this. "What do I get for it?"

"Are you off your rocker? What do you think you get? You get to help me bag a creep."

"Let's say that I agree to help you. You come into my house. I've never met you. I just want to know what you're thinking." He stood up and walked right over to her. "You come in here looking like you do, you have to know what that's going to do to a man. I just got out of the hospital, you know. Could use the company of a fine woman and you look like a damn fine woman."

At this point Lamb undid the knot in her trenchcoat just as Veronica reached up and slapped him across the cheek. "I'm not that kind of girl, Sheriff."

Lamb backed Veronica up against the door and pushed her coat off before pressing his body against her. "Funny, you're dressed like that kind of girl."

Along with the thigh highs Veronica was wearing… well… not much else. She stood in front of Lamb wearing just a black bra and panty set, her thigh highs and her heels.

Lamb pushed himself against her and gruffly whispered in her ear. "Besides, Ms. Mars, I can make you into that kind of girl."

Veronica huffily whispered back. "I doubt you can do anything I don't want you to do, Sheriff, but I'm excited for you to try." With that she walked past him and sauntered into his bedroom, pausing for a moment at the door to peer back at him. He was after her in less than a second.

"Fuck, Mars. The shit you do to me." He pushed her onto her back on the bed and immediately covered her with his body.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, Lamb." She rolled her hips into his and moaned. They'd had a quickie in his hospital room earlier this morning but it didn't matter to her. She wanted him now and she wanted him bad.

Veronica had stopped trying to analyze what made Lamb so good in bed, the man had one good arm and it still felt like his hands were everywhere. He pushed her bra away and his mouth latched onto her nipple and she arched her back. "I wanted you bad enough anyway, and you show up here looking like this. How do you expect me to react? What do you want me to do, Mars?"

"Well I assumed you'd be putting that mouth to better use." Veronica gasped at him as he torturously circled two fingers over her underwear, staying too far away from her clit to give her any of the friction she so wanted.

"Ah well you know what happens to little girls who assume, don't you Mars?" Lamb pulled off her underwear, leaving her in just the thigh highs and heels.

"Do they get fucked by their boyfriends, because that would be just awesome." Veronica turned to kiss Lamb but he backed away at the last second.

"Got a boyfriend I should know about, Mars?"

"Yeah, he's kind of an asshat, but a sweet one, And he's the town sheriff, if you're nice to me I might introduce you, maybe he can get you out of a parking ticket."

"Oooh, _that _boyfriend, and here you had me worried." Though in the back of his mind he was thinking that Veronica had never referred to him as her boyfriend before. At least not to his face. At that thought, Lamb removed his own pants and positioned himself at her entrance. Kissing her hard on the mouth as he entered her at a super slow pace. "Fuck, Veronica."

Veronica arched her hips up to meet his thrusts, "Please, Don." She wrapped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his hips, trying to get him to go harder. Deeper. Anything other than this torturous pace he had started.

She bit his bicep to show her frustration since her whiney pleas were going unnoticed. Finally she couldn't take anymore, she flipped Lamb around so that his back was on the bed and she was on top of him.

Instantly he plunged deep into her, hitting spots she always forgot she had, until they did this again... His hands went to her chest as he palmed her breasts and pinched her nipples. "Fuck me, Mars. Show me how you want it."

Veronica slipped her heels off to get better leverage and bobbed herself up and down on Lamb's dick. She was so close to the edge, she just needed an extra little… Veronica reached down between then and rubbed small frantic circles on her clit as she continued her onslaught.

_So fucking close_. "Please, Lamb." She didn't even know what she was begging for as his hands grabbed her hips solidly and Lamb moved her faster and faster, finally spanking her on the ass as she started to crest.

Veronica hit her peak and tried to slow down and let her body come down. Lamb had other ideas, he kept his hand on her hips and he kept up his frantic pace. "No slowing down, little girl. I want to watch you come again." This time, Lamb's other hand took over for Veronica's, rubbing tight little circles over her clit.

Veronica was balancing herself on Lamb's chest, no longer trying to slow their pace. Quicker than she expected, she started to feel her second orgasm coming on. Her toes started to curl, and her vision got hazy and dark around the edges. She went over the edge and that time Lamb came with her, straining his hips to release himself into her.

Veronica slumped down onto him. They were both a sweaty mess and neither of them cared. This was perfect, the two of them together, they clicked in a way that neither of them had ever really expected. And the sex was just one part of it.

Veronica rolled off Lamb and gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

"Nice job, cowboy."

"Keep your movie role playing in line, Mars. Next time we can play cowboys and indians."


End file.
